Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 546: Nguyen's Northern Expedition

After discussions among the court officials, Meng Jun selected a more pleasing title and conferred the title of Marquis of Zhaoning on Zhu Youlang, granting him land and houses, 100 taels of gold, and 1,000 taels of silver. The treatment of Zhu Youlang and Fulin was not much different, and the servants in his home were also carefully arranged by the Qingluan Guards.

At this point, the emperors of the former Ming Dynasty and the former Qing Dynasty were all settled by Meng Jun in the capital. The residences of the two emperors were only a hundred meters apart. However, this was not a deliberate arrangement by Meng Jun. Perhaps it was a mistake made by court officials, or perhaps it was intentional.

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Annan, Thang Long City.

Just as the Qian Dynasty was aggressively attacking Burma, Li Chengdong led his troops into Annan and completely wiped out the Zheng family. When Meng Jun arrived in Liaodong and formed an alliance with the tribes south of the desert, Li Chengdong's general Yan Keyi rushed into Yi'an Prefecture.

When Li Chengdong invaded Annan, the main forces of the Annan Zheng family were all in the south, confronting the Nguyen army. They were suddenly shocked and found it difficult to return to defend. When Li Chengdong attacked Thang Long City, the Zheng family moved their main forces in the Quang Binh area to the north.

The Nguyen family further south took the opportunity to send troops to attack Quang Binh Prefecture. Zheng's army was defeated under the pincer attack of the Nguyen family and Li Ting Dong. Li Ting Dong controlled Nghe An and Ha Tinh Prefectures, while the Nguyen family took the opportunity to seize Quang Binh. Zheng Zao, the head of the Zheng family, died and his country was destroyed less than half a year after he ascended the throne.

After Li Chengdong took control of Annan, he lavishly rewarded his subordinates with land and houses, and gave all of them to the people who followed him south without mercy.

This in turn aroused strong dissatisfaction among the people of Annan. However, Li Chengdong was a ruthless man and he killed all those who disobeyed. From Thang Long Prefecture to Thanh Yuan, to Nghe An and Ha Tinh, there were so many heads killed. This tragic situation caused countless Annan scholars to defect to the Nguyen family and ask the Nguyen family to send troops.

The head of the Nguyen family, Nguyen Phuc Binh, also believed that Li Chengdong would lose the support of the people due to such a large-scale killing, so Nguyen Phuc Binh personally went to Quang Binh and vowed to lead his troops to the north.

Nguyen Phuc Binh sent out more than 30,000 troops, including more than 200 war elephants, who rushed into Ha Tinh Province with great momentum.

What Li Chengdong did was indeed inhumane. As soon as Nguyen Phuc Binh's army entered Guangping, they were followed by a large number of followers, and the people came to welcome the Nguyen army with food and drink.

Nguyen Phuc Binh was complacent and thought that Li Chengdong was just trying to help him. Li Chengdong's defeat of Zheng was like a dispute between a crane and a clam, and he, the fisherman, should benefit.

When Li Chengdong heard that Nguyen Phuc Binh was sending troops to the north, he was not afraid at all. Li Chengdong had fought for half his life and had seen all kinds of big and bloody battles. Except for the small loss he suffered at the hands of Meng Jun, he always won.

So Li Chengdong personally led more than 50,000 cavalry and infantry troops south to Yi'an Prefecture to fight against the Nguyen army.

The two sides engaged in battle. Li Chengdong led the infantry with Yan Keyi to attack head-on, Wu Wenxian was on the left wing, and his general Yang Dafu was on the right wing. When the two sides were in a stalemate, Li Chengdong led 2,000 cavalry to raid the Nguyen army from the flank.

For a moment, the Ruan army's line in the direction of Yang Dafu was shaken, and the collapse of the army was imminent.

And just when the army formation collapsed, Yang Dafu personally led the guards, took the lead, and shouted to kill the enemy in front of the formation.

Li Chengdong had been in the army for so many years and knew that the army was his foundation. Therefore, as soon as he arrived in Annan, he lavishly rewarded the troops. As a result, the morale of his troops, which was unstable when they were forced to move to Annan, has now become high. It can be seen that although Li Chengdong is shameless, he has quite the ability to command the army.

Seeing that the Nguyen army was on the verge of collapse due to the collapse of the right wing, Nguyen Phuc Bin urgently ordered a hundred elephant soldiers as a surprise attack to attack Yang Dafu's troops. The hundred elephants trampled on the ground and even the fleeing soldiers were trampled by hundreds of elephants.

Yang Dafu was shocked when he suddenly saw the Ruan army attacking with elephants. However, his troops were already chasing and killing the defeated Ruan army and could not stop for the time being. So Yang Dafu could only bite the bullet and lead his troops to attack.

With the sound of drums, Yang Dafu's troops met the elephant formation head-on. The soldiers from the Central Plains had rarely seen creatures as large as elephants, and they were panic-stricken for a moment, and their formation was in disarray. The elephants of the Ruan army had thick skin and flesh, and they became even more violent when they felt the pain.

Yang Dafu stabbed the elephant's eye with a long spear. The elephant swayed wildly, turned its head and crashed into the elephant next to it, trampled several Ruan soldiers, and then fell down weakly.

But before Yang Dafu could be happy for long, he was knocked to the ground by a blow from the trunk of a war elephant. The elephant then raised its hoof and was about to trample Yang Dafu. Fortunately, the personal guards quickly pulled Yang Dafu down and saved him.

Just this one move made Yang Dafu's face turn pale with fright. He looked around and saw that his troops were in chaos. Li Chengdong saw that the right wing was in chaos and immediately ordered all troops to stop.

The Nguyen army was less powerful and had fewer men than Li Chengdong, and many of the war elephants had been damaged after the attack. The elephants also did not have the strength to continue charging, so Nguyen Phuc Binh immediately ordered a slow retreat.

In this battle, the Nguyen family was generally at a disadvantage. If it were not for the elephants' contribution, Nguyen Phuc Binh believed that he would have lost the battle. Therefore, Nguyen Phuc Binh decided to adopt a delaying tactic and use defense as offense.

Although Nguyen Phuc Binh was the attacking party, Li Chengdong's rear was not very stable. As long as he dragged it out long enough, Li Chengdong's backyard would catch fire sooner or later.

The fact was exactly as Nguyen Phuc Binh had expected. As soon as Li Chengdong led his troops south, scholars in Thang Long Prefecture in the rear gathered the people, saying that they wanted to restore order and rise up to fight against Li.

Li Chengdong wanted a quick battle, he really could not wait any longer. After discussing with other generals, they came up with the idea of using firearms to defeat the enemy. So Li Chengdong urgently ordered people to select more than a thousand muskets from the treasury to form a firearms unit.

These muskets were basically looted from the treasuries in Guangdong and Guangxi, and they were all old gadgets made in the Ming Dynasty. However, for Li Chengdong, as long as they could fire and make a sound, it was enough.

After more than a month of struggle, at the end of September in the third year of Zhaowu, Li Chengdong took the initiative to launch an attack. He could no longer wait. There were fires everywhere in the rear, and the troops he left behind were busy putting out fires everywhere.

On the battlefield, Nguyen Phuc Binh maintained a defensive position, using a series of defensive fortifications such as rivers and village walls to block Li Chengdong's attack. Nguyen Phuc Binh had already received the news that Li Chengdong's rear was unstable.

Li Chengdong, on the other hand, arrested villagers everywhere and captured tens of thousands of them. He used human wave tactics to attack the enemy, and anyone who refused to advance was killed. Many of the Nguyen soldiers could not bear to kill so many civilians, and the archers' arms were already weak from continuous shooting.

Li Chengdong used an iron-fisted approach, using the people as a human wall and driving the villagers to serve as cannon fodder, trying to overwhelm the Nguyen army with a sea of people. When he noticed the hesitation of the Nguyen soldiers, Li Chengdong sneered and then Wu Wenxian beside him ordered: "Choose the elite and brave people, take advantage of the enemy's weakness, and break through in one fell swoop!"

Wu Wenxian received the order and immediately selected and assembled elite soldiers, rushing into the enemy camp like a sharp knife!