pappabearbooks #381 - A true battle to establish a foundation! To become famous and leave a name in history! Daqing
#381 - A true battle to establish a foundation! To become famous and leave a name in history! Daqing
The Great Qing Dynasty court had finally responded to him.
The Imperial Guards Commissioner, Count Wang Ziteng, was appointed as the commander-in-chief, and 100,000 troops were dispatched southward along the Grand Canal, expected to arrive soon.
Inside the Yangzhou Prefect's Yamen, Luo Fu's civil and military officials gathered, lined up on both sides.
On the civil official side, the Lin family was clearly at the core. Even those who weren't from the Lin family had significant ties to them. It could be said that within the civil official system, the Lin family even held overwhelming power, potentially overshadowing Luo Fu.
Unfortunately, apart from Lin Ruhai, probably no one understood that Luo Fu's true strength never came from the forces under his command, but from his own invincible power to dominate the world. Even the 16,000 elite soldiers under Luo Fu's command, each capable of fighting a hundred men, were not his true strength.
Not to mention that Lin Ruhai, having taken the Origin Seed, could never develop ulterior motives.
Even if he did, and acted upon them, he would face Luo Fu's thunderous strike in an instant.
Before even establishing the country, Luo Fu might have to initiate a Hu Weiyong case.
"Great Emperor!" A burly and rugged-faced military officer, formerly a thug in the Canal Gang but gradually cultivated into a military backbone by Luo Fu, said with great enthusiasm, "This Qing bird court, it would be fine if we didn't attack them, but they actually dare to attack us at this time. They're simply courting death! Your Majesty only needs to give me 2,000 soldiers, and within three days, I will surely annihilate all 50,000 troops of this bird court."
Lin Ruhai stroked his long beard and said with a smile, "Your Excellency, I was still wondering before, if we were to go south to Jinling just like this, would it really mislead the people of the world into thinking we are just bandits? Now, Your Excellency only needs to defeat these 50,000 troops of the court, and then we will have the confidence to occupy Jiangnan and rule across the river. This confidence is for the world to see. Going south to Jinling can wait, but defeating these 50,000 troops cannot be delayed for even a moment."
Compared to Lin Ruhai and the military generals' full confidence,
the Lin family scholars, who had been pulled into Luo Fu's battlefield by Lin Ruhai, were more inclined to maintain their previous plan.
After all, although the Great Qing showed signs of decline, it was not yet the end of the dynasty. In the hearts of many people, the Great Qing's army was still very capable.
This was because they didn't know that every single soldier under Luo Fu was an elite. Pick any one of them, and they would be qualified to serve as a chiliarch-level officer in the Great Qing army.
However, no matter what they thought in their hearts, Lin Ruhai was still the leader of the civil official faction.
"Then let's fight!" Luo Fu said indifferently, "Two thousand is a bit too conservative. I'll give you a thousand more, but there's one condition: I want you to completely crush the Great Qing court's forces with lightning speed, so that the Great Qing court won't be able to interfere with my plan to occupy Jiangnan in the short term."
The rugged man who volunteered was overjoyed upon hearing this.
The Origin Seed only guaranteed their loyalty to Luo Fu, but it wouldn't drastically change their own will.
Many people were very clear that this time, the court's 50,000 troops for suppressing the rebellion were almost equivalent to a true foundation-laying battle for the Luo Heaven Army.
In the future, when the dynasty was changed and Luo Fu became the emperor, bestowing titles upon meritorious officials, this battle would definitely be a world-shaking achievement.
Its importance was almost equivalent to the Battle of Lake Poyang between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang.
With the strength of Luo Fu's forces, there was almost no possibility of losing this foundation-laying battle.
Under this circumstance, others were just a beat too slow and were preempted by this rugged man.
For a time, many people showed envious, jealous, and disappointed expressions.
After arranging for 3,000 soldiers to be responsible for defeating the court's 50,000 troops, Luo Fu himself still didn't slow down his intention to go south to Jinling.
In addition to the 3,000 people who were specially dispatched, the remaining 12,000 troops began to cross the river and go south according to the previous planned plan.
The reason why there was an extra thousand was that most of them were Lin family disciples recruited by Lin Ruhai.
In fact, the Lin family alone had more than a thousand people, but there were not many who were truly useful. Moreover, some of them, like the aristocratic families of the past, chose to hedge their bets.
Luo Fu was naturally aware of this, but he wasn't angered by it.
In addition to the people from the Lin family, there were also very few people in Yangzhou City who chose to surrender to Luo Fu.
There was no shortage of opportunists at any time.
The strength of Luo Fu's 16,000 men, each capable of fighting a hundred, was naturally seen by some people in Yangzhou City. They sensed the strength of Luo Fu's forces, and naturally some people wanted to gamble for a marquisate for generations.
These people were unorganized, otherwise, they might have become a force under Luo Fu to contend with the Lin family.
Luo Fu saw clearly that the forces under his command had begun to divide into factions so quickly, but he didn't intend to interfere at all.
After all, he had also learned the art of slaying dragons. How could Luo Fu, who used Marxist-Leninist theory in reverse, not know what it meant to have no factions within the party, which led to all sorts of strange things?
Luo Fu's side seemed to not take the court's 50,000 troops seriously at all.
When 12,000 troops came to the north bank of the Yangtze River, ready to cross the river south to capture Jinling,
news of the Battle of Yangzhou in the north also reached Luo Fu's ears as soon as possible.
Clearly, the imperial army outnumbered the Luo Heaven Army by ten to one, but the final result was that 30,000 troops collapsed at the first touch under the frontal assault of 3,000 Luo Heaven Army soldiers, suffering a crushing defeat. Except for Wang Ziteng, the commander, who saw that the situation was bad and boarded a fast boat in advance to flee north,
30,000 troops were completely annihilated. Over 15,000 were killed in battle by the Luo Heaven Army, and the number of missing in action reached an astonishing 6,000. Of the remaining 9,000, only a scattered 1,000 or 2,000 escaped, and about 6,000 or 7,000 were captured by 3,000 people, as if they had been frightened out of their wits.
Such a record seemed astonishing at first glance, but in fact, it was not an exaggeration at all. One should know that 3,000 men, each capable of fighting a hundred, could easily achieve the effect of killing 15,000 if each of them killed five.
When Luo Fu learned of this news, and thought that the court claimed to have 100,000 troops, but on paper, there were 50,000, but in reality, there were only 30,000 troops, and they were wiped out so quickly by the hands of 3,000 Luo Heaven Army soldiers, Luo Fu couldn't help but imagine Chu Yunfei's angry expression.
In fact, the court received the news only one day later than Luo Fu.
And the current emperor was indeed as Luo Fu had imagined.
In the imperial court,
"Wang Ziteng, this piece of trash, is a scourge to the country and the people! Fifty thousand troops, fifty thousand troops, collapsed at the first encounter? Even if fifty thousand pigs rushed over, Luo Thief wouldn't be able to catch them all!" The current emperor flew into a rage, scolding Wang Ziteng for harming the country and the people in front of all the civil and military officials.
"Is this my Imperial Guards Commissioner? He has actually humiliated the country to such an extent?" The current emperor was so angry that he felt dizzy.
Standing on the dragon throne, overlooking the many civil and military ministers in the hall below, he said with gritted teeth, "Come! Tell me, what exactly does Wang Ziteng do? How incompetent does he have to be to lose all of my 50,000 troops in this first encounter? Is that Luo Thief a celestial soldier descended from the heavens? That Luo Fu brat was even just a scholar of my Great Qing a year ago. A dignified Imperial Guards Commissioner can't even take down a mere scholar, and even lost my Imperial Guards' 50,000 troops. I… I…"
The more he spoke, the more agitated he became. Suddenly, the current emperor's eyes went dark, and his body swayed.
This frightened the two eunuchs, Dai Quan and Xia Bingzhong, who were serving beside him.
Accompanied by the two eunuchs' exclamations,
the civil and military officials kneeling in the hall were also a little flustered.
If Wang Ziteng hadn't lost 50,000 troops so easily, then few of the civil and military ministers would have really taken Luo Fu seriously.
After all, in their eyes, Luo Fu's resume was nothing more than that of a former scholar.
As the saying goes, a scholar's rebellion will not succeed in ten years.
In the eyes of all the ministers in the court, Luo Fu was at most a minor ailment of the Great Qing. They were afraid that his actions of taking Yangzhou with internal and external cooperation and cutting off the Grand Canal would cause ambitious people to imitate him.
Now, it was good that 50,000 troops were instantly lost, and Luo Fu became famous all over the world in one fell swoop. Now everyone knew, and it was even very likely that many ignorant people would be bewitched, eventually leading to even greater disasters.
A vice minister of the Ministry of War, realizing that this was an opportunity for him,
Wang Ziteng was now destined to become the target of public criticism. If he could completely trample Wang Ziteng to death, it would undoubtedly be an opportunity for him to make a name for himself and be remembered in history.
"Your Majesty, I accuse Wang Ziteng of ten major crimes."
When the emperor, under the comfort of the two eunuchs, finally eased his emotions, the vice minister of the Ministry of War forcibly imposed ten crimes on Wang Ziteng.
Among them, six or seven were just far-fetched, but undeniably, just the fact that Wang Ziteng was defeated in Yangzhou City meant that both he himself and the Wang family behind him were finished.
Those few fabricated crimes were just to make it even more impossible for Wang Ziteng to turn over.
With the vice minister of the Ministry of War taking the lead, a large group of civil officials immediately rushed towards Wang Ziteng like flies seeing dung, as if Wang Ziteng was the source of all the sins of the Great Qing Dynasty.
It was not enough to appease the people without killing Wang Ziteng!
Jia Zheng of the Jia family and the two brothers of the Shi family were really frightened by this scene of passionate indignation at this moment.
At the same time, they were very clear that the moment Wang Ziteng was defeated, he had completely lost the possibility of turning over. At this time, let alone the four great families of Jia, Wang, Shi, and Xue, it was not a time for shared interests.
The best approach was to cut ties with Wang Ziteng as soon as possible and protect their own families first. As long as they survived this time, then there was still a possibility of maintaining the family in the future. If a talented child appeared in the family in the future, it might not be impossible to revitalize the family.
But if the entire family was implicated by Wang Ziteng, causing the Wang family to be unlucky, then there would really be no chance.
The Shi family brothers changed their stance and followed the passionate civil officials to step on Wang Ziteng. With the Shi family brothers taking the lead, the so-called alliance of the four Wangs and eight dukes immediately collapsed.
Among the military officials, some began to belittle Wang Ziteng. However, many were still clever enough to realize that the real key for them was how to solve the problem of the Luo Tian bandits.
While criticizing Wang Ziteng, some military officials also began to volunteer for the task.
Accusations against Wang Ziteng, defenses for Wang Ziteng, volunteers stepping forward... the civil and military officials in the hall were in complete chaos.
But everyone knew that, in the end, there were only two primary tasks at hand.
One was to solve the problem of Luo Fu, and the other was the handling of Wang Ziteng.
And the former was obviously much more important than the latter.
Unfortunately, the Jing Camp was itself useless. Wang Ziteng had lost 50,000 troops at once, although only 30,000 of them could truly be considered combat soldiers.
But when marching and fighting a war, civilian laborers and logistics are a significant number that cannot be ignored.
For example, Wang Ziteng's 30,000 combat soldiers, when added to the personnel responsible for transporting food and other logistics, was a number much larger than the 50,000-plus on the court's books. This is why the court would claim to have 100,000 troops.
This wave had almost exhausted the Four Great Families' resources. More importantly, many staunch supporters of the Four Great Families were among those who went on the expedition with Wang Ziteng, and now Wang Ziteng had sent them all to their deaths.
After the arguments, the court quickly decided on the punishment for Wang Ziteng.
Luo Fu was growing stronger. At this time, the most important thing to do was to be clear about rewards and punishments, rewarding merit and punishing demerit. This would set an example for those below.
Unsurprisingly, Wang Ziteng was dismissed from his official position. After being tried by the Three Judicial Offices, he ultimately faced the fate of having his entire family exiled.
Compared to punishing Wang Ziteng, the court was more concerned about the strength that allowed Luo Fu to wipe out 50,000 imperial troops in the battle.
"What were the losses of the Luo bandits?" After calming down, the Emperor immediately asked his ministers.
The civil and military officials looked at each other for a moment, then all lowered their heads in unison.
In reality, the process of this battle was too fast, so fast that people were caught off guard. Even many scouts could not figure out how much the imperial army had lost. They only knew that Wang Ziteng's tens of thousands of troops were almost destroyed like crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood. Corpses littered the battlefield, and blood flowed like rivers. The water in the canal around the battlefield was dyed red with blood for several miles.
It could be said that the Luo Tian Army's combat power brought unparalleled shock to the court.
"Speak up! Are you all mute?" The more the Emperor looked at these silent ministers, the more furious he became.
"Reporting to Your Majesty," the head of intelligence, similar to the Ming Dynasty's Embroidered Uniform Guard, stepped forward with a stiff face and said, "That Luo Tian bandit is surprisingly powerful and should not be underestimated. The losses... we have not yet investigated the losses, but... but we expect they are not great."
Laughing in extreme anger, the Emperor gnashed his teeth and said, "The Luo bandits wiped out 50,000 of my elite troops in one battle. They wouldn't still be obediently staying in Yangzhou, enjoying its prosperity, would they? What do you think the Luo bandits will do next?"
In an instant, everyone felt their hair stand on end.
Just as the Emperor said, Luo Fu had crushed 50,000 imperial troops in one battle and was full of ambition. Would he foolishly wait for the imperial court to conquer him again?
An elderly civil official with white hair and beard suddenly froze, a look of deep horror in his eyes. He said in a trembling voice, "Not good, it's Jiangnan! If this Luo bandit abandons Yangzhou, the next step must be Jinling in Jiangnan, which is only a step away."
These words immediately caused a stir in the entire court.
Although Yangzhou was wealthy, its political status was far inferior to Jinling.
The system of the Daqing Dynasty was somewhat similar to the Ming and Qing dynasties, but in terms of the capital, it was closer to the Ming Dynasty, with a system of two capitals in the north and south.
More importantly, Jinling was the place where the Daqing Dynasty started, the place where the Taizu declared himself king and established the system, and also the former capital where he ascended the throne.
Once Jinling fell into Luo Fu's hands, then the momentum of the Luo Tian Army would be completely different. Even the people of the world would no longer regard Luo Fu as a simple bandit.
Everyone was frightened by this possibility.
The Emperor's face turned pale, and he said, "Quick! Quickly send an order to Jinling! We must not let this Luo Tian bandit succeed."
Amid the discussion of united will to resolutely defend Jinling, a civil official suddenly seemed to have thought of something and said, "Your Majesty, that Luo bandit is a scholar from Beizhili. The Luo family was once a prominent family of the previous dynasty. Now that Luo Fu has rebelled and committed such a heinous crime, should we arrest the Luo family?"
These words immediately seemed to remind the Emperor. Coming back to his senses, the Emperor gnashed his teeth and said, "Of course, we must! Issue my decree to arrest all nine generations of that Luo bandit's family! No, no need to arrest them. Execute them on the spot! All of that Luo bandit's relatives, regardless of gender or age, young or old, leave none of the nine generations alive!"
The Emperor truly hated Luo Fu to the extreme.
Although Luo Fu's ancestors were prominent officials of the previous dynasty, the Daqing Dynasty had been established for a hundred years, and the Luo family had been reduced to local landlords in the countryside. Even if they were not considered gentry, one could feel that the Luo family was at most only slightly stronger than ordinary commoners.
When Luo Fu became a bandit who shook the Daqing Dynasty's foundation, no one in the court would speak for the Luo family in the Emperor's rage.
Previously, when Luo Fu left Beizhili, his so-called words of exterminating his entire family to his second uncle had come true in just a few months.
However, there were also some upright people in the court. Luo Fu's actions were indeed a heinous crime punishable by nine generations in the Daqing Dynasty.
But at its source, Luo Fu, who was once a scholar, had reached this point because of the oppression of the Four Great Families, which had an undeniable connection.
Several upright ministers who knew Luo Fu's previous experiences, when they saw the Emperor planning to execute Luo Fu's nine generations, although they did not have the courage and position to speak for Luo Fu, they would not give up such an opportunity to attack the martial merit group of the Four Kings and Eight Dukes.
"Your Majesty, the Luo bandit is heinous, but he was once Your Majesty's subject. The reason why he has come to this day is all due to the evil deeds of the Jia family's oppression."
Upon hearing this, the Emperor was disgusted.
After all, after Luo Fu raised the banner of rebellion, the Emperor specially ordered people to investigate Luo Fu, and even personally read Luo Fu's examination papers when he took the exam.
In the Emperor's opinion, Luo Fu might not be a peerless genius, but he was also a talented writer. If it were not for the oppression of the Four Great Families' servants, his success in the imperial examination was almost inevitable, and perhaps he would have a place in the court in the future.
Unfortunately, all of this was ruined by the stupidity of the martial merit group. They not only ruined a good seedling of a civil official, but also created a serious problem for the court.
Thinking of this, the Emperor naturally became more disgusted with the martial merit group, which he already disliked.
"Your Majesty!" Jia Zheng was directly frightened into a cold sweat, and he fell to the ground and said tremblingly, "Your subject... Your subject did not manage his subordinates strictly, and I beg Your Majesty to forgive me."
Jia Zheng's reaction made countless people shake their heads secretly. Was this the time to admit fault?
As expected, Jia Zheng's almost foolish performance made the Emperor even more unhappy. He snorted coldly, intending to take advantage of this opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and solve both the Jia family and the martial merit group together.
However, the Emperor also knew that the martial merit group could not be touched before the rebellion launched by Luo Fu was completely quelled.
After all, to some extent, the martial merit group was the face of the military.
It was the face of the imperial court. The martial officials fought bloody battles for wealth and glory, right? It could be said that martial merit was the ultimate pursuit of the martial officials. Before the rebellion of Luo Fu was quelled, touching the martial merit group would instead cause the martial officials to waver.
The Emperor valued civil officials, but it did not mean that he really did not understand the art of emperor.
Glaring at Jia Zheng unhappily, the Emperor secretly gritted his teeth and said, "Strictly order the Rongguo Mansion to clean up the house. Your ancestors were so brave. As descendants of the late Ning and Rong Dukes, even if you cannot emulate your ancestors, you cannot be like this today."
Although pedantic, Jia Zheng also knew that with the Emperor's words, the Jia family had escaped a disaster this time.
While feeling fortunate, Jia Zheng also hated those subordinates who acted on their own initiative and brought out a hero like Luo Fu.
After the court meeting ended.
The expressions of the civil and military officials were more serious than the other, and the most ugly was undoubtedly Jia Zheng.
Returning to the Rongguo Mansion, Jia Zheng immediately summoned the housekeeper and the servants and began to ask which bold dog thing had provoked a hero like Luo Fu.
While the Daqing court began to prepare for the next actions against Luo Fu.
After learning that outside Yangzhou City, 3,000 Luo Tian Army soldiers had wiped out 30,000 Jing Camp soldiers in one battle, beheading 15,000, and almost all the large and small generals were wiped out, only the commander Wang Ziteng had escaped by chance.
Whether it was the newly joined civil official group led by the Lin family, or the military officer group centered on the Cao Gang backbone, all showed excited expressions under Luo Fu's command.
Especially those who joined Luo Fu's command in Yangzhou, if they had been gambling before, then this time, they really felt that Luo Fu could succeed, and there was a real chance to change the dynasty.
As the master of the Luo Tian Army, Luo Fu waved his sleeves and crossed the river.
Jinling was much closer than the capital.
Before the capital received the news, Jinling had already learned the result of the Battle of Yangzhou.
At first, Jinling completely regarded Luo Fu, a bandit who had taken advantage of the power of the Cao Gang to occupy Yangzhou in a sneak attack, as a bandit.
Many people even believed that even if Luo Fu occupied Yangzhou, it was only a minor problem for the Daqing Dynasty, which had not yet reached the end of the dynasty.
It could be quelled soon.
But as a partial division under Luo Fu's command wiped out 50,000 imperial troops in one battle, Jinling was completely panicked.
Many people immediately began to pack their belongings and flee Jinling with their families.