Wang Yuan really didn't lie. There were indeed more than ten thousand troops in the south.
It's just that these troops are not at Xinqiao Station.
Feng Zhen, the deputy commander-in-chief of Yansui, went straight from Zhuozhou to Hejian Prefecture and towards Jingzhou, trying to outflank the bandits' retreat. He encountered many scattered bandits along the way and even fought a battle outside Fucheng County. The battle was won, and 864 rebels were captured and killed.
Queyong, the guerrilla general of the Xuanfu Prefecture, pursued a more deviated pursuit route. He drove an army of rebels down from Baoding Prefecture and captured and killed 130 rebels in Zaoqiang County, Zhending Prefecture. They were four states away from the main force of the rebel army. .
Only Deputy Commander-in-Chief Xu Tai kept an eye on Liu Liu and Liu Qi. As a result, he ran into a large-scale rebel division in the northeast of Cangzhou.
This group of rebels had a complex composition. It was mainly composed of Yang Hu's troops, who dispersed when they broke out in the north. They also absorbed other rebel troops along the way, including the remnants of Sun Hu who were killed by Wang Yuan in the Renqiu Formation. Six to seven hundred escaped. Most of the cavalry joined them.
Xu Tai fought with this group of rebels for several days, chasing them all the time, but only captured and killed more than 400 old thieves. The other old thieves' infantry fled into the wilderness, and there were still nearly a thousand rebel cavalry left. Xu Tai circled north of Cangzhou and chased for several days without even catching a hair.
Xu Tai could only abandon it and go south to pursue the main force of the rebels. When they arrived in Cangzhou, Liu Liu and Liu Qi had already escaped by boat.
"I'm so angry!"
Xu Tai was incompetent and furious, feeling that he was being treated like a fool by the rebels.
Zhang Qi, the magistrate of Cangzhou, said: "Vice-President Xu, please go south quickly. At this moment, Wang Yushi Zhengzheng is leading strong troops from three provinces to attack the bandits with more than 10,000 troops from Xinqiao!"
"What about three provinces with powerful troops? What about an army of more than 10,000 people?" Xu Tai was confused when he heard this.
Zhang Qi explained: "More than ten thousand officers and soldiers blocked Xinqiao Station, and Wang Yushi led Zhejiang and Guangdong soldiers and horses to pursue them. The bandits will be defeated from both sides."
The more Xu Tai listened, the more confused he became. Could it be that the Xuanfu and Yansui frontier troops had completed the outflanking of Xinqiao Station, so there were more than ten thousand troops in the south?
But that's not right. The total number of troops on the left side is only a few thousand.
That is to join the Beijing camp, otherwise there would be no more than ten thousand troops? Yes, that must be the case!
But what are the soldiers and horses in Zhejiang and Guangdong?
Xu Tai asked again and again and finally figured out the situation. It turned out to be the local guard troops responsible for escorting weapons.
Wang Yuan, with his 200 elite cavalry, was able to defeat more than 10,000 bandits. Now he has a thousand more muskets, archers, and tens of thousands of friendly troops to cooperate, and he is afraid that the rebel bandits will be wiped out directly.
This new top pick cannot steal all the limelight, otherwise where will the frontier army’s face be?
Xu Tai rode his horse directly out of the city, took a boat to the camp, and ordered: "After a good meal, set off immediately. Give up all the baggage, and the whole army rushes with dry food. Be sure to catch up with the rebels before Xinqiao Station!"
Yes, I met a credit-stealer.
Regarding this, Wang Yuan wished that there would be a few more and they would all come to Xinqiaoyi to grab the credit.
…
Nie Zheng joined the team in confusion. Until now, even Wang Yushi didn't know that he was the number one scholar in the new department.
After just a few casual words, they were urged on their way by Wang Yuan - mainly because they were afraid of revealing their secrets and did not dare to say anything. Anyway, they would deceive him into marching and not give the two of them any room to calm down and think.
Halfway through, Man Zheng secretly asked Nie Wei: "Where did these two hundred elite cavalry come from? They look so fierce. They are all very energetic and do not take the rebels seriously at all. It seems that they all want to kill them in a hurry. The enemy makes meritorious deeds."
Nie Wei smiled and said: "With more than ten thousand friendly troops in front of us, who doesn't want to kill the enemy and make meritorious deeds? Aren't we just here to make meritorious deeds?"
"That's right, but their armaments are really good." Man Zheng looked at the cavalry with envy.
Each of the two hundred elite cavalry had two crossbows, as well as lances and sabers. Fortunately, the armor was not taken out, otherwise Nie Gu and Man Zheng would have been frightened to death if they were all wearing iron armor.
After traveling for a long time, one thousand guardsmen could not hold on any longer, and some kept falling behind due to exhaustion.
Wang Yuan did not kill anyone to establish his authority. Instead, he smiled and said to the guards: "You are all suffering from being soldiers. When will you be able to get ahead? There are the main force of the bandits ahead, Liu Liu, Liu Qi, and Qi Yanming."
, Yang Hu, and Zhao Wei are all among them. According to the reward offered by the imperial court, as long as any one of them is caught, he will be promoted from a small soldier to a thousand hereditary households. I guarantee it in the name of my ancestors. As long as you can make meritorious deeds, no one can
Take away the credit. What’s the point of being tired and suffering? If you walk too slowly, the leader of the bandits will be killed by the tens of thousands of troops from Xinqiao Station!”
As soon as this statement came out, morale was greatly boosted.
The guardsmen no longer complained about being tired, they just complained that they didn't have wings and wished they could fly to Xinqiao Station in an instant.
After walking for another half an hour, Nie Wei suddenly said to Man Zheng: "Brother Man, why do I feel something is wrong?"
"What's wrong?" Manzheng asked.
Nie Wei frowned and said, "I don't know what's wrong, but I always feel that something is fishy."
Manzheng smiled and said: "Can this Wang Yushi still deceive us?"
At this moment, a guard sentry horse in gilded clothes suddenly came running back: "The bandit army is stationary, but two thousand thieves are back on horseback!"
"What should we do?" Man Zheng was shocked.
Wang Yuan took his time and said with a smile: "The baggage team formed a carriage formation, and the guardsmen hid in the carriage formation to defend against the enemy. The cavalry are all wearing armor, follow me to charge!"
After a while, Nie Wei and Man Zheng were stunned, speechless as they looked at the uniform iron armor.
During the Zhengde period, the garrison system had not yet deteriorated to the extreme, and it was not common for generals to maintain their own families. They mainly relied on private sergeants to fight the war.
Iron armor is only worn by elite border troops, and in other areas it is only worn by generals to show their majesty.
In the mid-Ming Dynasty, four-hole wire drawing technology had been mastered, which allowed the mass production of chain mail. Therefore, Wang Yuan's two hundred cavalrymen each had chain mail weighing forty-five kilograms, and they had worn these in previous battles.
At this moment, facing the active attack of the rebel cavalry, two hundred fine knights rode outside the chain armor and added a layer of iron armor. The whole set of armor weighed more than a hundred kilograms!
In the past, only chain armor was worn to fight in order to reduce the burden on the war horses and to take advantage of speed. Now, if you put on a full set of armor, you are ready to fight head-on.
Even the war horse is covered with a layer of chain armor!
Nie Wei couldn't help but asked: "Wang Yushi, are you commanding the frontier cavalry?"
Wang Yuan laughed loudly: "This is His Majesty's Leopard Fang personal army!"
Zhu Ying also laughed and said: "I am the Royal Horse Supervisor Zhu Ying."
Wu Liande said: "I am Wu Liande, the Jinyi Guard."
Nie Wei and Man Zheng suddenly stopped talking. They felt as if they were on a pirate ship.
The two hundred heavily armed cavalrymen slowly walked to the side of the car formation, just waiting for the bandits' cavalry to come and die.
After a while, the bandit army came, with more than 1,800 horses.
…
Generally speaking, all kinds of thieves have cavalry in their capitals. Especially at the beginning of the uprising, because they grabbed countless war horses, some small groups of rebel thieves even had a full cavalry lineup - to be precise, they were a horse bandit lineup.
However, after traveling through several provinces for several months and suffering many defeats, the number of cavalry rebels became smaller and smaller, while the proportion of infantry became larger and larger.
Up to now, you, the bandit leaders, command dozens of cavalry, and I command hundreds of cavalry. They all regard the cavalry as personal guards and rarely use them alone when they are gathered together.
Wang Yuan really deceived others so much that he followed him all the way from Jinghai County to Cangzhou.
The rebels tried to attack several times, but Wang Yuan fled with his cavalry. He sent too many troops and could not catch up, but sent too few and was eaten by Wang Yuan. In the end, he simply ignored the two hundred elite cavalry.
However, the bandits had already aroused their ferocity when they attacked Cangzhou. They suffered heavy losses and were followed all the way by Wang Yuan. Now they lost their minds and gathered the remaining nearly 2,000 cavalry to kill Wang Yuan at all costs.
Qi Yanming was the absolute cavalry commander among the rebels. He had three hundred direct cavalry under his command, which was as many as Liu Liu, Liu Qi, and Yang Hu combined.
"Brother Qi, look!" Jia Mian'er pointed in the direction of the two hundred fine cavalry.
"hiss!"
Qi Yanming took a breath of cold air. The moment he saw the knight in full armor, he immediately didn't want to fight anymore.
"Are you still going to kill me?" Song Lu asked.
"Kill me, I'm not stupid!" Qi Yanming was furious and led more than 1,800 riders back to the camp.
Nie Wei was originally nervous, but now he turned to Manzheng and asked, "Are you leaving now?"
Man Zheng smiled and said: "If it were me, I would leave too."
The bandit army really did not leave, but instead pulled out thousands of infantry, intending to eat up Wang Yuan's baggage team. Once the baggage team was lost, could the two hundred fine cavalry still carry their own armor and chase them? Were they really defeated by Wang Yuan?
Yuan was annoyed to death, and he was determined to make Wang Yuan completely lose the ability to follow him if he was heavily ridden into the formation and suffered heavy casualties.
Nie Ying and Man Zheng were both dumbfounded. They were here to paddle and gain merit, not to fight a tough battle.
Wang Yuan smiled and said: "You two can choose to escape, and I won't complain to you. But I would like to remind you that the opponent has nearly two thousand cavalry, so I ask you if you can outrun me. Anyway, my heavy cavalry will not be stupid.
If we go after Qingqi, I will only lead people to attack the opponent's central army."
"We won't run away." Nie Wei and Man Zheng smiled bitterly at the same time. They had already sent greetings to Wang Yuan's eighteen generations of ancestors in their hearts.
Hundreds of civilians and a thousand guardsmen formed a car formation with their backs to the Grand Canal.
Yang Hu, Zhao Wei, Liu Hui and others led four thousand infantry to invade. Qi Yanming, Jia Mian'er and others led more than 1,800 cavalry to raid the formation.
There were more than a thousand bandits left, all nestled in the boat together with Liu Liu and Liu Qi, who were wounded by arrows, as well as their family members and provisions.
The situation of the rebels was a bit complicated, as all the ships were stolen.
Yang Hu was afraid that Liu Liu and Liu Qi would escape by boat with their goods, food and fodder, so there were many of Yang Hu's people on the boat, and many of Liu Liu and Liu Qi's people on the shore. They were on guard against each other, and the more battles they lost, the more they lost.
The greater the conflict, the more restrained you are by not fighting on your own.
"kill!"
The first ones to launch the attack were Liu Liu and Liu Qi.
Both of them had been injured in Cangzhou, and now they were sitting on the bow of the boat, driving the boat to charge towards the military formation on the shore.
Fortunately, the bandits had no archers, and the only arrows they had were all used up outside Cangzhou City, otherwise the car formation would have been very difficult to defend.
"I have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to believe the words of a scholar!" Nie Zhen was so depressed that he vomited blood and said to Man Zheng, "Brother Man, your archers will guard the river and the left wing, and my fire musket soldiers will guard the front. Definitely.
We must hold on and see if Wang Yushi can break through the bandit army."
Man Zheng was about to cry but had no tears, so he replied: "That's all. This place is not far from Xinqiao Station. I hope that the tens of thousands of troops there can come quickly."