Chapter 147: Master Wang North Settles Wujiang City
When Yuan Zongdi sent people to rush forward to deliver the news that Wu Zhikui's entire army on the front line had been wiped out, Zhu Yihai happened to arrive at the gate of Wujiang City.
Wujiang is located forty-five miles southeast of Suzhou. In early June, the Qing army sent people to surrender Wujiang, but the county magistrate Lin Mei refused to defend it, and the army was defeated and the city was lost.
His friend Wu Yi was a native of Wujiang. He and he were Jinshi in the 16th year of Chongzhen's reign. King Fu proclaimed himself emperor. Together with Lin Mei, he went to Yangzhou to join Shi Ke's French army to fight against the captives. Shi Kefa was appointed as the head of the army and became the supervisor of the Yangzhou army.
The next year, he was sent to the south of the Yangtze River to collect grain and grass, but Yangzhou was already defeated before it could be returned, so he led the grain transport fleet to Wujiang to rescue Lin Mei. Before reaching Wujiang, Wujiang had been broken by the county magistrate Zhu Tingzuo, who secretly communicated with the Tatars and opened the door to lure thieves.
Wu Yi went to Taihu to camp, and together with fellow villagers Sun Zhaokui and Shen Zijie, they raised the flag of righteousness and vowed to fight to the death. They tied their waists with white cloth and formed the White Waist Party, imitating the White-headed Army of Xudu.
The garrison leader Baidang went out and about in Taihu Lake and between three villages, he recruited and surrendered the Taihu water bandits Barefoot Zhang San, Skin-Picking King, and Mao Er. His momentum was not small at that time, and he repeatedly attacked the puppet troops.
Recently, seeing Huang Fei, Wu Zhikui gathered an army to attack Suzhou, so Wu Yi led the White Yao Party to plot to seize Wujiang. Wu Jian, a member of the Wu Yi clan, was a nephew of Wu Yi and was an internal agent. Because of a drunken blunder, a traitorous slave at home reported him to the fake county magistrate. Zhu Tingzuo. After hearing the report, Zhu Tingzuo immediately sent people to capture him and confiscated the Wu family.
Wu Jian's father, Wu Ruyan, was an old scholar. He escaped from Wujiang overnight and rushed to Changbaidang to report the news to his younger brother Wu Yi. Wu Yi mobilized all his white-waisted troops and rushed to Wujiang City to attack Wujiang City.
When Zhu Yihai's vanguard arrived, Wu Yizheng was wearing silver armor, a silver belt around his waist, carrying a silver spear and riding a white horse. He was commanding the white waist army to attack Wujiang City. Most of the white waist army was composed of fishermen and water bandits from Taihu Lake. Only a small part of them were the officers and soldiers who accompanied Wu Yi from Yangzhou to raise food.
However, Wujiang City was also very empty at this time. The pseudo-county magistrate led the county people to defend the city. The two sides fought fiercely. Wu Yi's troops lacked siege equipment, while Zhu Tingzuo lacked major generals.
For a while it was hard to tell.
Although Wu Yi had made quite a fuss before, he mainly relied on his water advantage on Taihu Lake, sailing a boat like the wind, and taking the initiative to ambush and raid to win. Now it is a bit difficult for them to attack the county town.
While he was anxious, a team appeared behind him with a green flag. Wu Yi was startled. Many of the raw water bandits including barefoot Zhang San, his general, even saw that the situation was not going well and immediately greased their soles and fled.
Wu Yi rode on horseback, raised his gun, shouted orders repeatedly, and organized his men to form an array to meet the enemy.
The men and horses holding the green flag advanced slowly, and the horsemen galloped back and forth. Most of Wu Yi's men had fled, and only about 3,000 people were still gathered under his banner.
Wu Yizheng was about to fight, but a man came flying under a green flag. When he came near, he turned out to be an acquaintance.
"Brother Hua Jing, is that you?"
"Brother Risheng, he is my younger brother."
"Why did you surrender to the enemy?" Wu Yi saw that the other party came from the enemy camp, and his tone became indifferent. The person coming from Hua Jing was also from Wujiang, and they had studied together as classmates. However, Wu Yi later passed the Jinshi examination, while Hua Jing failed repeatedly. Even if he fails, he is still a scholar.
Hua Jing laughed, "Don't you think it's the puppet army and the Tatars when you see the green flag. Let me tell you good news. The one behind this is my Ming Dynasty King's Division, the Northern Expedition Royal Camp of Lu Jianguo. When you see that The burly armored general is not there, that is General Zhang Mingyang, the commander-in-chief of Shizhong Town, the infantry force of the royal camp, and his brother is Zhang Mingyang, the heart-stabbing general who served the country wholeheartedly."
Wu Yi also heard about Lu Jianguo and Zhang Mingyang, and he was a little dubious.
"Brother Risheng is attacking Wujiang. Do you need our help?"
Wu Yi couldn't ask for it.
So Hua Jing led Wu Yi to the green flag and met Zhang Mingyang, the commander-in-chief of Shizhong Town. Zhang Mingyang resigned as the admiral of the Ma Army and was appointed as the commander-in-chief of Shizhong Town, Infantry Army. This time it was he who introduced the Shizhong camp as the imperial camp.
The striker happened to encounter Wu Yi playing against Wujiang City.
After hearing the reason, Zhang Mingyang said, "We will capture Wujiang City first."
Soon Zhang Mingyang led his troops directly to the city and shouted to the city.
The fake county magistrate looked at the green flag under the city and couldn't figure out the situation for a while. The two sides shouted, and Zhang Mingyang lied that he was returning from Hangzhou north and was the vanguard of Marshal Boluo's former army.
He also said that Wu Yi had surrendered to him and asked the city to open its doors to prepare food and drink for the army.
Zhu Tingzuo looked at the thousands of people in the city and did not dare to open the door. He only said that there was no food in the city.
Zhang Mingyang immediately displayed his demeanor as a domineering warrior, and immediately shouted to attack the city. He also said that after the city was defeated, he would cut the dog county magistrate into thousands of pieces.
Zhu Tingzuo, a scholar, met the soldiers. He was already a little weak when resisting Wu Yi's white-waisted army. Now, a significantly more elite green army came, and he was immediately afraid.
Over there, Shizhong Town also immediately pulled out the Tiger Crouching, Folang Machine and other cannons and began to reload them. After a while, they began to blast towards the city.
After a few cannons, even though they were only small cannons, the sound of the cannons still made Zhu Tingzuo panic. Seeing that many archers and musketeers were coming up, the gentry and others nearby were also panicked. How could he withstand this?
.
"Why don't we let these green soldiers in first?"
"They must have come in and robbed."
"They are all soldiers and horses of the imperial court. We don't dare to go too far with the robbery. But if we don't let them in, and we really piss them off and force their way in, it will be all over."
Seeing this, Zhu Tingzuo had no choice but to order the city to be opened, "Hurry up and get food, and get some wine and meat. I hope these people who kill a thousand swords will not act too randomly."
"Go and get some more money."
The city gate slowly opened.
Soldiers from outside the city rushed up immediately.
When the green soldiers rushed into the city gate, when they got closer, Zhu Tingzuo and others who were waiting to greet them at the city gate discovered that these green soldiers had not shaved their heads under their helmets.
At this time, Wu Yi came in swaggeringly on a horse and came directly to Zhu Tingzuo, "Dog officer, accept your fate!"
Before Zhu Tingzuo was stabbed to death by a gunshot, his mind was filled with questions as to what was going on.
Aren't they Green Camp soldiers? Aren't they the vanguard of Marshal Boluo of Hangzhou? Why didn't they shave their heads? Didn't Wu Yi surrender? Why are they still so arrogant?
Zhu Tingzuo was stabbed, and Wu Yi struggled to lift him up and stand him in the air.
Zhang Mingyang also came in at this time, and finally announced his identity to the frightened and doubtful squires, "This general is Zhang Mingyang, the commander-in-chief of Shizhong Town, the Imperial Guard of the Lu Supervisor of the Ming Dynasty. From now on,
Wujiang City is restored, long live the Ming Dynasty, and long live Lu Jianguo!"
The sudden news shocked all the gentry into panic and confusion, and several of them fell to the ground in fright.
At this moment, Wu Risheng, the white-waisted commander who was still carrying the corpse of the pseudo-county magistrate Zhu Tingzuo, truly believed that this was an army of the Ming Dynasty.
The Northern Expeditionary Army recaptured Wujiang without bloodshed, and also incorporated three thousand white-waisted rebels.
When Zhu Yihai rushed to Wujiang County from behind, he had no time to enjoy the joy of victory. Yuan Zongdi's urgent report was immediately sent back. Wu Zhikui attacked Songzhou and was ambushed. The entire army was wiped out. Huang Fei's navy's morale collapsed and the entire army collapsed.