Zhu Guobi and Liu Kongzhao stood there in a stalemate, not knowing what to do.
Once you sign a military order, you have to take responsibility. If you take more responsibility, you will definitely be dismissed from office and stripped of your military power.
Secondly.
If His Majesty finds out, you may be stripped of your title or even... beheaded.
But if you don't sign.
If His Majesty finds out, the outcome will not be any better.
Your Majesty doesn't even need to take action. Under the impeachment of those civil officials, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will take action.
Stay away from the center of power from now on!
Sign...or don't.
These two thoughts kept lingering in their minds, wavering.
After struggling for a while, Liu Kongzhao signed his name on the military order and stamped it with his seal.
He is the admiral of the Caojiang Navy, and all his men are naval officers.
Li Zicheng had no navy before this, and even after three months of training, Liu Zongmin was no match for him.
After weighing the pros and cons, he chose to compromise.
Zhu Guobi was the only one who had not signed the military order.
"Forget it, Lord Zhu, please go back." Lu Daqi said.
"I..." Zhu Guobi hesitated.
"If you sign but fail to do it, you will die. If you don't sign, you will have a chance to survive," Lu Daqi reminded.
Zhu Guobi's eyes flickered for a moment, and he stood up and said to the people present: "Everyone, I will lead my troops to bypass Hongze Lake and attack Liu Zongmin who is stationed in the north of Sizhou."
The scene was quiet, and the only responses he received were the sound of the wind outside the boat and the sound of breathing inside the boat.
Zhu Guobi knew that he was bored, so he turned around and walked out of the cabin and left on a small boat.
"Everyone please go back early. We will dispatch troops at the beginning of the morning hour tomorrow."
"Yes, sir."
Liu Kongzhao and Liu Zhaoji stood up, bowed, and left one after another.
Only Lu Daqi and Li Shiyuan were left in the cabin.
"Sir," Li Shiyuan said, "Without Zhu Guobi's 5,000 men, our chances of winning are..."
"It doesn't matter. He won't make much difference either. The focus of this battle is not to fight, but to help Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo and others cross the river."
......
Fengyang City, also known as Zhongdu, was built in September of the second year of Hongwu.
After completion, there were three city walls: outer, second and inner.
The outer city wall is thirty kilometers long and five zhang high; the second city wall is about eight kilometers long and two zhang high; the inner city wall is less than four kilometers long, five zhang high, two and a half zhang wide at the bottom and two zhang wide at the top.
The city walls were all built with large bricks, and twenty-two prefectures, seventy states and counties, and countless garrisons were responsible for firing the bricks.
The mortar for bricklaying is a mixture of lime, tung oil and glutinous rice juice.
In the eighth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong captured Fengyang. According to historical records, the entire city was destroyed when Zhang Xianzhong evacuated.
However, according to historical records, three days after the city fell, Zhang Xianzhong and Gao Yingxiang split their forces and marched in different directions.
Therefore, even if the city wall was destroyed, not much would be destroyed, after all, the Fengyang city wall was built with bricks.
In addition, the city fell in the eighth year of Chongzhen, so the local defenders had plenty of time to repair it.
In order to besiege Fengyang, Li Zicheng deployed heavy troops in the north, east and west of the city.
There was only one gap left in the south of the city.
This is called "surrounding three sides and leaving one side" in military terms.
If you surround the enemy on all sides, you will force the enemy generals to fight to the death.
On the contrary, if a gap is left, the enemy generals may be hesitant between fleeing and fighting to the death, leading to the breakdown of military morale.
The location of the gap is also important. Either the terrain should be undulating to facilitate an ambush, or the road should be rugged to make marching inconvenient.
The roads south of Fengyang City are relatively flat, but the waterways are dense and complex, with fish ponds and paddy fields everywhere.
It's difficult to escape from here.
Ma Shiying stood on the city gate tower, looking at the copied military order in his hand in silence.
The military order required him to send 10,000 soldiers out of the north gate at the beginning of the morning hour on April 18th to form a battle formation and engage in a field battle with the bandits.
At the beginning of the morning hour, 10,000 soldiers were sent out of the East City Gate to engage in a field battle with the bandits.
And then...wait.
"Wait? Is that possible?" Ma Shiying had fought Li Zicheng in the field several times before, but all ended in failure.
The strength of both sides is similar, the difference lies in morale.
In particular, Ding Kuichu was defeated and captured just after taking office, which led to very low morale of the Ming army.
There is no way out, whether it works or not, so we can only go ahead with it.
......
At 1:00 a.m. on April 15, the Ming navy suddenly entered Hongze Lake from the canal.
At the same time, the Ming army's infantry and cavalry on the shore also broke camp and headed north along the canal, heading straight for the confluence of the Huai River and Hongze Lake.
The Shun army's temporary navy was the first to discover the situation, and they immediately reported it to Liu Zongmin.
Liu Zongmin was indeed a strong commander, but his strength was only in the army.
The navy does not have much experience in combat.
After hearing the news from the Ming navy, Liu Zongmin immediately issued an order: "Tell the infantry stationed along the river to aim their guns at the river. When they see the Ming warships, they can fire without asking for permission."
"Also, split the navy into two, and use one part to lure them to the depths of Hongze Lake."
"The other part will immediately go to the confluence of the Huai River and Hongze Lake. Even if we have to use boats to block the river mouth, we must prevent the Ming navy from entering the Huai River."
His idea was good, but the Ming navy soon taught him a lesson.
Li Shiyuan first sent hundreds of small warships into Hongze Lake to play a game of cat and mouse with the Shunjun navy.
The small warship raised its sails and, with the help of the southeast wind, shot into the lake like an arrow.
The two sides are simply not on the same level.
These elite troops fighting on the Yangtze River were skilled in tactics. They first charged head-on, making a gesture as if they were going to ram the ship.
Then they changed direction at the right time, and when the warships of both sides were parallel, they threw out poison felt and firework paper balls to disrupt the enemy's sight, and at the same time used spray guns and rockets to attack the enemy's sails.
In a short while, dozens of Shun army warships were set on fire on Hongze Lake.
The warships that sailed to the river mouth were even worse off.
After Liu Zongmin captured Sizhou, he stayed on the north bank of the Huai River so that he could return to Henan at any time.
The Ming army advanced along the south bank of the Huai River.
The Shun army that was blocking the mouth of the Huai River soon discovered a problem: the Ming army on the south bank was attacking.
what to do?
Abandon ship and flee, of course!
These improvised naval soldiers fled directly to the north bank without any hesitation.
The first to arrive at the mouth of the Huai River were Liu Zhaoji's troops.
He looked at the densely packed small warships on the river and laughed, then continued marching westward.
Li Shiyuan commanded the naval officers and soldiers to board the ships, with three or four people on each warship, and then lowered the flags of the warships and sailed into Hongze Lake.
Half an hour later, the piled up warships at the river mouth were cleared away.
"Hurry up and get on board the boat and enter the Huai River!" Pulled by the trackers on the shore and with the help of the wind, small warships quickly sailed into the Huai River.
Then they raised the Shun army flag and headed west.
The Shun army on the shore was confused: "Are they friendly forces?"
"It seems so. It is carrying the flag of our Dashun."
"Shouldn't they be guarding the river mouth? Why did they run upstream?"
"I don't know either. Quickly inform General Zongmin."
Just as they were in chaos, the Ming navy, flying the Ming army flag, went upstream.
"Fire, fire quickly."
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