Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 191 Capture Xu Hongru alive

"let me go!"

"Hey hey... be honest!"

October [-]th, Wenshang Township in Shandong Province. At this moment, there is no prosperity in the past. There are only so-called "rebels" wearing red scarves and committing atrocities.

Women are defiled, the old and the weak are killed, and the young are held hostage...

When the so-called uprising is not restrained by discipline, it often develops into the so-called thieves.

This is the case with the current Mahayana Rebel Army, and such atrocities spread on the road from Yuncheng to Jining Prefecture.

Thirty miles to the south of Wenshang Town, a group of people is marching south in a chaotic manner. However, if you observe carefully, most of the people are in small groups, talking and laughing. Only in the front row, There were only four thousand slightly disciplined soldiers in various armors.

These [-] people are one of the [-] elite Xu Hongru has accumulated over the years of activities.

In the center of their guard was a well-built, fifty-year-old man in a yellow robe.

He looks ordinary, and next to him is a middle-aged Confucian scholar wearing a green robe and armor. At this moment, the Confucian scholar smiled at the old man in a yellow robe:

"Your Majesty, Shen Zhi, Zhang Jianbai, Hou Wu, Zhou Nian'an, Meng Xianhan and others are also attacking Dong'e, Shouzhang, Yanggu, Juye, Anxing, Jiaxiang and other places."

"In addition, General Left and General Right in Henan also captured two counties and six towns. Our Mahayana already has [-] troops. I'm afraid it won't take a month to sweep Shandong and Henan."

"At that time, we will be able to wipe out the violent Ming, and return the world to happiness."

The Majesty that the Confucian scholars spoke of was Xu Hongru, who called himself "Zhongxing Fudi", but when Xu Hongru heard the words, he was not proud and complacent, but said:
"Then Yuan Keli has three battalions of soldiers and horses in his hands, plus there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in Beizhili, I'm afraid things will not be so easy."

"But this is not important. As long as the water transportation is cut off, the Ming army in Beizhili will starve to death."

"Defeat Jining, and then Zoucheng, then the only way for the Ming court to negotiate peace with me."

Thinking of how smooth the uprising was, Xu Hongru's joy turned into a smile on his face.

But at the same time, someone rode a horse from a distance, and a general in armor immediately bowed to Xu Hongru and said:

"Your Majesty, six thousand Ming troops under the banner of Yuan Zi have been spotted twelve miles ahead."

"Yuan Zi?" Xu Hongru frowned slightly and said, "It should be that guy Yuan Keli, but he only has more than [-] people, so he dares to challenge me in Mahayana?"

After all, Xu Hongru said: "Send a large army to charge the battle. The Chinese army and I will wait for an opportunity. If we find an opportunity to eat this Yuan army, the whole Shandong will have no power to resist."

"Observe the decree!" The general heard the words, and after returning the gift, he rode his horse back to his own soldiers. Xu Hongru also commanded [-] elite troops to garrison at the same place. After the "big army" came up, he commanded the big army to march forward.

In half an hour, the tens of thousands of troops marched forward in a dense manner, and saw the Ming army stationed in the distance.

Compared with this messy rebel army, the Ming army has more than [-] people standing in front of the formation, with hundreds of Franglers and tiger squatting guns in front of the formation, and there are also sentry cavalry on the left and right sides, which is not small in scale.

Yuan Keli, who was in the Chinese army, did not wear armor, but wore the governor's uniform, a cloak, and a black gauze hat, and rode his horse to the front army.

The two generals Li Xingzhong and Zhang Erxin followed him, and the rest of the Dengzhou battalion was sent to Ziyang to protect the prefecture.

"Governor, this rebel army looks like a mob. Please allow the last general to lead the army. You only need two sentry cavalry to beat the rebels."

Li Xingzhong bowed to Yuan Keli on horseback, but Yuan Keli said flatly:

"The rebels are not to be feared, the main thing is to capture Xu Hongru, the leader of the rebels."

As he said that, Yuan Keli took a closer look, only to find that Xu Hongru was hiding behind the rebels with his elite.

In other words, he also knew that the Ming army was a tough one, so he asked the rebels to die.

Regarding this, Yuan Keli sneered contemptuously: "Cowardly!"

After being contemptuous, Yuan Keli did not relax his vigilance, but said to Zhang Erxin and Li Xingzhong:
"General Zhang Shen is in charge of the four armies, and the central army is under my command. As for General Li Shen, I will wait for my military order and prepare the cavalry to capture Xu Hongru alive."

"Obey!" The two bowed in response.

Seeing this, Yuan Keli didn't say anything more, and rode his horse back to the Chinese army. At the same time, tens of thousands of bandit troops also rushed towards the Ming army.

The distance between the two sides was constantly shortening. Finally, when the distance between the two sides was only one mile, Zhang Erxin of the former Ming army gave an order:
"put!"

With an order, the torch was lit on the match, and with the sound of "chi chi", the match was burnt out, and then the Franco machine guns in front of the battle fired respectively.

The sound of "Boom" appeared, followed by two catties of stone bullets, which spanned a mile and smashed into the unarmored rebel army.

The stone bullets turned the people beaten by the rebels on their backs, and their broken limbs flew around.

The rebels had never seen such a formation before, and the formation began to become chaotic, and Xu Hongru immediately said:

"Take the Mahayana general camp to charge and kill!"

As soon as he gave an order, the [-] elite around him were commanded to dispatch [-] to charge forward, integrate the tens of thousands of troops that were about to collapse, and continue to press towards the Ming army.

The gunners of the Ming army skillfully cleaned the barrel, then waited for the cannon to cool down a little, then filled it with gunpowder and stone bullets, inserted the matchlock, and continued to ignite.

After this process was completed, the rebels were less than [-] steps away from the artillery front of the Ming army, and the tiger squatting gunners were also ready to light the matchlocks.

"put!"

Zhang Erxin continued to give orders, and the gunners of the Franc machine fired one after another, and with the sound of "boom", they continued to shell the rebels.

However, with the backbone of the rebel army, civil strife did not break out because of the casualties of more than a hundred people, but continued to attack the Ming army under the command of the Mahayana general camp and the rebel generals.

The distance of three hundred steps does not sound far, but it is actually a bit far.

But compared to this distance, what takes more time is the artillery filling.

The Franco cannon was cleared and the gunpowder was filled with gunpowder, but the stone bullets inserted again were not big stone bullets, but two catties of small bullets wrapped in oiled paper.

The rebels walked a hundred steps, and at this moment Zhang Erxin also turned around and said:

"Drum!"

"Boom!"

With the beating of the drums, all the cannons rang, and the dense stone bullets were fired like a shower. These stone bullets, which were only the size of fingernails, became more terrifying than the firecracker bullets after they were fired.

More than a hundred cannons of different sizes were fired, and the former army of the rebels fell down like harvested leeks in an instant, and their defenseless single clothes were instantly penetrated. Even the elite of the so-called Mahayana general camp could not In the first time fell on the land of Qilu.

At this time, the artillery began to be dragged into the middle army, and the gunners of the former army also raised the guns.

The three-stage shooting of the Ming army began, and a thousand birds raised their guns and began to ride and shoot row after row.

The distance between the two sides has been shortened to sixty steps. If this distance is in the Liaodong battlefield, let alone the Baijia Balaya, even the Han soldiers among the Jianlu will not be afraid, because the cotton armor on their bodies is enough to defend.

But this is in Qilu, this is facing the rebels who only wear single clothes and cotton armor.

Therefore, when the "cracking" firecrackers sounded and white smoke rose, the rebels continued to fall like cutting rice, and only the Mahayana general camp in cotton armor was unscathed.

Seeing this, the rebel generals also began to publicize:

"Heavenly soldiers help me, I am invulnerable!"

"Heavenly soldiers help me, I am invulnerable!"

The rebels in the Mahayana camp all shouted, and those rebels who were originally farmers saw that the rebels who were dressed in the same uniform as themselves fell down, but the elites of the Mahayana camp were not injured. They were surprised and followed suit. The Mahayana general camp killed him.

At this time, the gunners of the Ming army retreated, and the spearmen and sword players stepped forward.

When the rebel army faced the Ming army who was also wearing armor and wearing cloth face armor, they fell into a disadvantage instantly.

The spears stabbed out like a forest, and the sword player protected the spear player, and dealt with the rebel sword player who rushed in with short soldiers.

For a while, the situation on the battlefield was changing, and at the same time, Yuan Keli also ordered:
"Order the two cavalrymen on the left and right to attack and capture Xu Hongru alive!"

"Yes!"

The messenger rode away immediately, and after Li Xingzhong received the order, he also blew the horn, and led the two cavalry around, preparing to capture Xu Hongru alive who was empty of troops around him.

But when the Ming army mobilized troops, a smile appeared on the corner of Xu Hongru's mouth, and then he waved and said:
"Fire the arrows and let all the hidden soldiers and horses come out!"

"Yes!" Hearing this, the Confucian scholar immediately ordered someone to shoot a loud arrow.

More than a hundred soldiers raised their hand crossbows and shot arrows into the sky. The arrows made a sound of "咻" in the air, and then exploded.

"Governor, the bandits are deceitful!"

A guerrilla general beside Yuan Keli bowed to report to Yuan Keli, but Yuan Keli said calmly:

"So what if there is fraud? There are only a few thousand elite thieves, and even if there are thousands or even tens of thousands, they are nothing more than a mob."

Yuan Keli's self-confidence boosted the morale of the people around him, and at the same time, as Yuan Keli expected, when the arrow fired, the surrounding Tangqi rushed back from the horizon.

The tens of thousands of rebels tried to attack from the left and right, but were stabbed and killed by spears. There was no chance at all.

As soon as Tang Qi arrived at Yuan Keli's army, he dismounted from his horse and bowed:

"Governor, six miles to the east of the army, there are tens of thousands of rebels coming."

"The governor and the army are seven miles west, tens of thousands of rebels are attacking."

Tang Qi's report was in two directions, and on the horizon directly in front, there was also a black army of soldiers and horses to support.

That was Xu Hongru's new battalion formed by using the armor used to capture the guards in various places. There are a total of more than [-] people, plus tens of thousands of rebels who were coerced.

"Stop the horn and tell Li Shen to withdraw."

"Yes!" Guerrilla received the order, and then someone stopped the horn.

Naturally, Li Xingzhong saw the changes on the battlefield. Seeing that Xu Hongru had gathered so many rebels in just a few days, he immediately turned around and led more than a thousand cavalry back to the camp.

"One hundred thousand troops, this place is where Yuan Keli will be buried!"

Xu Hongru uttered wild words on horseback, as if in his opinion, Yuan Keli was about to die here.

However, at the same time as he was laughing, there was the sound of rumbling horseshoes behind him.

Feeling dissatisfied in his heart, he immediately turned his head and looked behind him.

I saw that on the plain behind him was a scene where tens of thousands of rebels came to support, but in such a scene, there were no more than a hundred people with horses.

It was like the sound of thunderous hooves, it was impossible for these hundreds of horses to make it.

Xu Hongru straightened his back, squinted his eyes and continued to look at the army, but his pupils shrank suddenly, as if he saw something terrifying.

Behind the tens of thousands of rebels, on the horizon several miles away, a neat and narrow red tide rushed, and dust clouds rose behind them.

At this moment, the pores of Xu Hongru's whole body were tingling. Before he gave an order, the tens of thousands of reinforcements discovered the iron cavalry attacking behind him.

"Official army! There is an official army behind!"

"Reinforcements from the official army are coming!"

"Boom bang bang-"

Cries of pain and shouts sounded, tens of thousands of rebels were in a mess, and before Xu Hongru gave an order, they heard the crisp sound of firecrackers.

"It's the official army! It is said that the Mahayana generals will form an army and retreat westward!"

After Xu Hongru said, he was about to leave, and at the same time, the tens of thousands of rebels were beaten and fled almost instantly, revealing the Ming army hiding behind them.

"Governor! Reinforcements are coming."

The Ming army guerrilla said excitedly, and at the same time Yuan Keli also judged:

"It must be the Shangzhi army of Beizhili, but I don't know who is leading the army and how many are there."

"what--"

Yuan Keli was still analyzing, but tens of thousands of rebels had already fled. When the group of defeated troops was dispersed, the banner of the official army was also revealed.

"Qi?! Which famous general?"

Xu Hongru approached the former army with more than a thousand elites around him, while turning his head to look at them.

He was still worried about the pursuit of the iron cavalry, but he didn't want them to stop at the same time while they pierced through tens of thousands of rebels, fiddling with something on the horseback.

But one-third of the time it took for the incense to burn, these thousands of cavalry swept over again, holding a gun in their left hand, a long knife in their right, and clasping the reins with their two fingers.

"Escape!"

Among the tens of thousands of rebels, some weak-willed people dropped the agricultural tools and kitchen knives in their hands and started to flee. No matter how the elite Mahayana generals around them fought and killed them, they couldn't stop them.

Xu Hongru finally led his troops to squeeze into the rebel army, but he didn't want the rebel army to collapse, and the rebel army turned into a rebel army.

They have no formation at all, and now they are the meat of the iron cavalry.

"Keep it! Keep it!"

Xu Hongru tried in vain to form an formation in this short distance and time, but Yuan Keli suddenly ordered:

"The whole army marched with drums, encircled and suppressed the rebels, and captured Xu Hongru alive!"

"As ordered!"

"Woo~~~~Boom——"

The sound of the horn sounded, followed by the rapid and heavy drumbeat.

Jimo camp and Wendeng camp immediately dispatched troops, turned from defense to offense, and flanked the rebels with cavalry.

Xu Hongru, who was among the rebellious army, was wearing a yellow robe, which was particularly conspicuous.

At this time, thousands of iron cavalry were divided into dozens of small groups, spread out, and rode guns in their hands.

When they rushed to disperse the rebel army and approached the rebel elite, they immediately pulled the trigger and fired hot lead bullets and iron sand.

"Boom bang bang-"

How can the rebels in weak armor resist the iron sand and lead bullets?There were endless screams, and just a single encounter defeated the rebels' defense and rushed into the formation.

Waving long knives and iron bones, under the hand-to-hand combat, the elite defense line of four thousand rebels was broken through in an instant after the formation was broken, and the army was in chaos.

"Calm down! Calm down!"

Xu Hongru slashed and killed several rebels who broke up his formation because of fear, in an attempt to regroup the army.

However, when he was slashing, a noose was thrown from the air, and he was caught in it instantly, and while pulling off the horse, he rushed forward.

Xu Hongru fell off the horse and almost fainted, and then he rolled around among the piles of corpses and farm tools, knives and guns all over the ground. When he finally rolled out of a daze and opened his eyes, he had already stopped.

While the world was spinning, the only thing he felt was a burning pain in his back and blue pain in his limbs.

He was dragged away from the battlefield, and came to the eastern corner of the battlefield, in front of Bai Yutiqi.

"stand up!"

He was pulled up by a big hand, then kicked at the knee joint, knelt on the ground, and looked up to see a young man in silver armor riding on horseback.

"Your Highness, I just saw this man wearing a yellow robe and dragged him here. Can I get a reward?"

After the cavalry had cleaned up Xu Hongru, he knelt on the ground to ask Zhu Youjian for credit, while Zhu Youjian glanced down at Xu Hongru who was still in a daze and said:

"Xu Hongru?"

"Caomin is not Xu Hongru, Caomin is a puppet pushed onto a horse by Xu Hongru..."

After Xu Hongru realized that he had been captured alive, he immediately kowtowed three times to Zhu Youjian, explaining that he was not Xu Hongru.

"Then you're not Xu Hongru, what are you doing?" Zhu Youjian twitched his lips, obviously he had identified this guy as Xu Hongru.

The reasons are simple, firstly because of the yellow robe, secondly because this person's body shape is too well-proportioned, his hands don't look like they are working, and his skin is too fair.

How can a worker have such clean hands?

"Caomin is a doctor in Sishuiji. Because he looks like Xu Hongru, he was captured. The man in the army wearing the Confucian scholar's robe is Xu Hongru."

"Oh?" Zhu Youjian smiled, and said to Lu Wenzhao next to him:

"The person who asked you to come up and recognize someone."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao nodded, then turned around and signaled Lu Xiu to call for someone.

Seeing this, Lu Xiu rode his horse to the Jinyi Weiti riding formation behind him, and called a Baihu.

As soon as these hundred households appeared, Xu Hongru, who was kneeling on the ground, knew that he had fallen.

Because this person has seen him preach, so he can't run away.

"Your Highness, this person is Xu Hongru."

Hundreds of households bowed immediately, but Zhu Youjian heard the words calmly, and it seemed that he was not the leader of the rebel army, but an ordinary miscellaneous soldier:

"Since you have caught it, let's take it to the capital, and encircle and suppress the elite rebels, and surrender the rebels."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao responded, and then sent hundreds of cavalry to the battlefield, shouting to surrender and not to kill.

Xu Hongru was also taken away, without any swearing, but as if he had lost his soul, he was dragged away like a dead dog.

But after he was dragged away, Zhu Youjian said to the ordinary soldier who captured Xu Hongru alive:

"what's your name?"

"Your Highness, my name is Sun Shoufa, a native of Lintong, Shaanxi, and a Tiance Guard who joined in April of the first year of Tianqi."

Sun Shoufa knelt on the ground and bowed in response, and Zhu Youjian was not surprised when he heard the name.

Sun Shoufa from Lintong, Shaanxi Province, is brave and capable of fighting, and he is good at using iron whips.

In the history of his previous life, he served as a guerrilla under Cao Wenzhao's subordinates, capturing and killing thieves, lighting lamps, not getting mud, etc., and Gao Yingxiang was captured alive in the Battle of Heishuiyu.

After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he supported the clan of Qin Fan as the King of Qin, joined forces with He Zhen, the Shaanxi Chuangjun, and others to fight against the Qing Dynasty, and finally died in battle.

Overall, a loyal man who can be used.

Zhu Youjian was also not curious why Sun Shoufa came from Shaanxi to join the army. After all, many people under his command came from Shaanxi, Shandong and other places.

In the final analysis, it was because Shaanxi could no longer survive, so he could only join the army and eat food.

Since you want to eat military food, it is better to go to Yumajian to eat military food.

"What do you do now?" After thinking everything through, Zhu Youjian asked, and Sun Shoufa said:
"Currently serving as the chief banner officer under Qianhu, the former army of Tiance Guard, and Baihu under the C character."

"It's interesting..." Hearing Sun Shoufa's words, Zhu Youjian also asked:

"With all your abilities, you only serve as a general banner?"

"This... Isn't this because there is no battle and you can't show it?" Sun Shoufa smiled a little embarrassedly, and Zhu Youjian thought about it too.

As the saying goes, times make heroes. Right now, the Sixteenth Guards Army is strong, but without war, there will naturally be no generals and geniuses.

This battle gave him a Sun Shoufa, and there may be many talented generals waiting in the guards and guard camps everywhere, waiting for their day.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian said to Sun Shoufa:
"Temporarily grant you Tiance Guard Guerrilla. If you don't have any direct subordinates, you can call your former brothers to your side. From now on, you will follow Gu and defend Gu's safety."

"Thank you, Your Highness, Long En!" Sun Shoufa heard that he had jumped directly from the general flag to the guerrilla general, knelt on the ground excitedly, and kowtowed three times vigorously.

Seeing this, Zhu Youjian just frowned and said: "The man has gold under his knees, and he will follow Gu in the future. Don't kowtow easily, just bow."

"Yes! The last general understands." After becoming a guerrilla, Sun Shoufa is also qualified to be called the last general.

During the time when he communicated with Zhu Youjian, the battle on the entire battlefield was annihilated as the Mahayana general camp was wiped out, and tens of thousands of refugees surrendered and declared the end.

At this time, Yuan Keli also knew that it was Qi Wang Zhu Youjian who led the army. As a subordinate official, he naturally wanted to bring someone to salute and thank him.

He came with Zhang Erxin and Li Xingzhong on horseback, then got off the horse, stood on the ground and bowed to Zhu Youjian:
"Shandong governor Yuan Keli, see His Royal Highness King Qi..."

"This time Shandong's response is so quick, it is also thanks to your preparation."

"For the credit, I will be honored in the next success report." Zhu Youjian responded flatly on horseback, and Yuan Keli also got up and said:

"Your Highness can rest assured that there are officials in Shandong. The immediate priority is to ask His Highness to lead troops to quell the rebellion in Eastern Henan."

"Don't worry about the rebels in Guide Mansion and Kaifeng in the east of Henan. Yuncheng, the home of the rebels, was taken back last night. It's enough for you to protect the canal."

"In addition, these rebel prisoners cannot be abused. You will lead someone to hold them temporarily. After the rebellion is completely suppressed, I need to move them to Liaodong."

After all, Zhu Youjian beat his horse and was about to leave, but Yuan Keli could only bow and sing:

"Your Highness, please slow down..."

He watched Zhu Youjian leave, wondering why Zhu Youjian recommended him to be the governor, why he was so indifferent to him.

But he was right when he thought about it again. If he was too courteous to himself, Dong Linzhong would probably regard him as a traitor, so Zhu Youjian was protecting himself in disguise...

"It's really thoughtful..."

Yuan Keli shook his head, said something that Zhang Erxin and Li Xingzhong could not understand, then turned around and told them:
"You have also heard His Royal Highness Qi's words just now. Take care of all the captives. Don't attack the captives just because of a moment's success."

"The general understands!" The two could hear that Yuan Keli was warning them not to kill the captives for false credit, so he readily agreed.

As for Yuan Keli, seeing the two agree, he turned and looked at the Tiance Guard cavalry on the battlefield.

Looking at the armor and equipment of this team, as well as the discipline of marching and cleaning the battlefield, he couldn't help sighing:

"Only a few thousand cavalry, yet they dare to charge directly into tens of thousands of enemy formations. If Daming has [-] cavalry, why worry about Mobei and Liaodong..."

(End of this chapter)