Chapter 162: Defense of Zhending

After hearing from Zhu Gaoyu and Zhu Gaosui about the experience of deceiving the three Wuliangha guards, Prince Ning was silent for a long time, and finally said only one sentence:

“I’ve really grown up…”

It is because he has grown up that he has become more and more dishonest. He even dares to pry the girl who is supposed to be his “girlfriend” in front of his uncle and play tricks on him.

Zhu Gaosui was a little thin-skinned and could still feel a little guilty.

But for Zhu Gaoyu…

He didn’t have that emotion at all.

He even happily accepted Zhu Quan’s compliment:
“Actually, it’s not as good as you say. Uncle Seventeen, you have to believe that Jingnan has a future.”

“Just like the leaders of the three Wuliangha guards, can you say that these leaders are all fools? They insist on doing things with us that have no benefits?”

Although it sounded like fallacy at first glance, King Ning Zhu Quan had to admit that what Zhu Gaoyu said did make some sense.

However, although it was a reasonable thing, Prince Ning still wanted to kill these two bastards.

Those are the three Wuliangha guards!

They are almost the most elite troops in Prince Ning’s hands!
In the end, he was fooled by Zhu Gaoyu and Zhu Gaosui…

Most importantly, these two people acted first and reported later. They only learned the news after Zhu Quan jumped onto the big ship of Prince Yan’s Jingnan Campaign.

Even if he was angry and wanted to get off the boat at this point, it was already too late.

King Ning secretly counted his luck in his heart, and kept telling himself that he still had a long time to go in the battle of wits and courage with these two brats, and the outcome would be clear one day!
After thinking about it this way, King Ning felt a little more at ease.

He then looked at the two brothers Zhu Gaoyu, pondered for a moment, and then talked about business:
“There are actually people from Emperor Jianwen in Daning. It is not something that can be accomplished easily in a day or two if they want to reorganize the army and surrender to the Prince of Yan.”

“But from the King of Yan’s side, I think the imperial army is also approaching. The commander sent by the imperial court this time is likely to be someone like Geng Bingwen, the Marquis of Changxing. Don’t be careless.”

King Ning thought for a while and said:
“How about this, you dispatch a group of Wuliangha cavalry and quickly move south. It will take me some time to reorganize Daning.”

He spoke straightforwardly, as if he had not considered at all whether the promise made by King Yan could be fulfilled.

In fact, King Ning knew it clearly in his heart.

At present, the first confrontation with the imperial court has not yet begun, and it is still unknown who will win or lose.

If Zhu Panyan had not been trapped in Yingtian Prefecture, and if Zhu Gaoyu’s words had not hit his sore spot, whether Prince Ning would agree to this matter would be another matter.

The only pity was that Zhu Gaoyu and Zhu Gaosui took the lead in winning over the three Uriankhai guards. As a result, Prince Ning had fewer cards in his hand to involve Prince Yan.

However, that group of Mongolian mercenaries, who could become vassals of Prince Yan for the sake of profit, could naturally also return to Prince Ning for the sake of profit.

Thinking of this, a smile appeared on King Ning’s face.

Coincidentally, at this moment, Zhu Gaoyu also had a mysterious smile on his face.

The uncle and nephew looked at each other and smiled politely, and the atmosphere was harmonious.

Zhu Gaosui was watching from the side, and for some reason, he felt a chill in his heart.

These two people… don’t seem like good people!
……

the other side.

Several days have passed since the battle in the Baigou River area.

There is no doubt that the Yan army once again won a great victory.

However, facing the Southern Army heading north, the army was not arrogant after the great victory. Instead, it became increasingly nervous and cautious.

That night.

The King of Yan hid his troops in the water below the Yueyang Bridge.

The water surface was icy cold in early spring, so the soldiers held reed stems in their mouths with the ends of the stems exposed above the water to use for breathing.

When the enemy troops stepped onto the Yueyang Bridge, Prince Yan suddenly emerged from the water and surrounded the enemy from front and back. The Southern Army was defeated and Pan Jun and Yang Song were captured alive.

The King of Yan learned the details of Mozhou from Pan Jun and drove straight to Mozhou. When the generals of Mozhou heard the news, they lost their fighting spirit and surrendered with the entire city.

From then on, Mozhou fell into the hands of King Yan.

However, just when everyone thought that Geng Bingwen would start a major war, the veteran general gradually withdrew his troops and even planned to passively defend the city.

For a while, there were all kinds of opinions among the Southern Army.

Contrary to what Zhu Gaoyu remembered, the Southern Army’s trust in Geng Bingwen, a founding hero, was different.

This time, the imperial army’s march northward seemed to be no different from the historical trajectory, but in fact, because of Geng Bingwen’s previous memorial to the court, Zhu Yunwen still became suspicious.

He also arranged his own confidants within the Southern Army.

However, Zhu Yunwen was close to civil officials, and even the people he placed in the army were people who liked the lofty ideas of scholars.

For Geng Bingwen, it seemed as if there were many more constraints around him, and even privately in the army, there seemed to be some negative opinions about the direction of his commander-in-chief’s speech.

In response to this, Geng Bingwen just focused on defending the city and did not make any further comments.

During the confrontations over the past few days, Geng Bingwen saw the shadow of Li Wenzhong in Zhu Di.

When Zhu Di deployed his troops, he valued “speed” and “surprise”, and he especially liked to launch sudden attacks from the enemy’s flanks.

This combat style, when applied to the art of war, can be described as “using the normal to unite and the unusual to win.”

When the armies of both sides were preparing to march out again, the generals in the camp looked solemn and argued one after another, all discussing how to break through Zhending defended by Geng Bingwen.

The repeated battles over the past few days have left many generals with a hint of fatigue on their faces.

Qiu Fu scratched his head:
“No wonder Geng Bingwen is a veteran general left behind by Taizu. When it comes to defending the city, he is indeed unmatched by ordinary people.”

Zhu Di treated Qiu Fu’s words as nonsense.

This guy is sometimes out of his mind. Even at this moment, he is still encouraging others and destroying his own prestige.

No wonder Zhu Di trusted Zhang Yu, Zhu Neng and others more than Qiu Fulai.

Zhu Di faced the map in front of him and finally finalized the plan for this attack:
“The Southern Army has plenty of food and manpower. They can afford to delay, but we can’t.”

“This time, apart from a few soldiers who will conduct a feint attack from the front, the rest of you will follow me to attack Zhending from the southwest corner!”

This plan is indeed Zhu Di’s style.

Afterwards, everyone worked out the details of the plan, and accompanied by the sound of war drums, the Yan army launched another siege on the city.

Southwest corner.

When Zhu Di’s army was fighting fiercely, the sound of rolling artillery fire did bring a lot of difficulties to Geng Bingwen’s defense of the city.

Geng Bingwen stood on the city wall, looking into the distance, as if observing the artillery in the hands of the Yan army.

He has been dealing with these Urban cannons a lot these days.

Seeing that the cannon ammunition was running out, he sighed:
“If the cannon ammunition was not heavy and the cannon was not difficult to move, Zhending would have been captured long ago. It’s a pity that such a cannon cannot be used by the court…”

As an old veteran who had been left over from the founding period, Geng Bingwen, with his sharp vision, keenly discovered from the Battle of Zhending that firearms would become a mainstream weapon on future battlefields and a killer weapon that surpassed cold weapons.

But the person who discovered and improved this firearm was the son of the Prince of Yan. Speaking of Zhu Gaoyu, Geng Bingwen’s urge to sigh came again, and at the same time, the idea in his mind became stronger and stronger.

When the fierce fighting was in full swing on the battlefield, the Yan army came fiercely, but the soldiers in Zhending City, relying on the solid city walls, although they suffered casualties, they were still able to sit back and wait.

Among them, Zhu Neng, as the vanguard, charged the most fiercely.

When the Prince of Yan went to war, he always led the charge and was at the forefront. However, every time Geng Bingwen saw this scene, instead of showing a joyful expression of “capturing the prince first”, he looked pained.

Just like now, Geng Bingwen saw the King of Yan riding his horse into the rain of arrows, he had to hold his nose and shout:
“Be careful not to shoot King Yan! It would be best if you could capture him alive!”

After these words were spoken, even though the archer was not hearing this for the first time, he still couldn’t help but pause.

At such a long distance, he had to just injure the King of Yan, but not let him get fatally injured. In the end, he had to be captured alive…

Even a master archer may not be able to meet this requirement, right?

Things on the battlefield change rapidly, how can one be so detailed and accurate?

How could Geng Bingwen not know that they were secretly complaining about this?

In the silence, even the arrows on the city walls became sparse.

The area around Prince Yan has formed a zone similar to a vacuum zone.

At this moment, a sudden change occurred.

There was a sudden tremor on the ground not far away.

It was as if countless horse hooves were falling, and as if drum beats were playing on the ground.

In the distance, smoke and dust were spreading.

Immediately afterwards, thousands of cavalrymen rushed forward, with a strong wind blowing.

When Geng Bingwen saw this scene, he suddenly felt something was wrong.

Because he saw two figures, one tall and one short, on the backs of the two leading horses.

For some reason, Geng Bingwen always felt that the two figures were extremely familiar, especially the shorter one.

A guess seemed to be about to emerge in his mind.

When the horse’s hooves got closer, he discovered that the shorter figure was draped with a large piece of silk.

Before the arrows could hit them, Zhu Gaoyu, who was on horseback, shouted at the top of his lungs:
“I have on me the map of the unified Ming Dynasty left by our great ancestor. The entire Ming Dynasty is just this one piece! It is a gift from the emperor! Who dares to shoot an arrow at me?!”

Geng Bingwen was standing on the city wall and just happened to hear this clear shout.

He immediately felt dizzy and almost fainted.

No! Who taught you to do this?
Also, when did Taizu actually give something like “The Great Ming Unified Map” to Zhu Gaoyu?

Geng Bingwen’s always calm face finally cracked.

He looked at Zhu Gaoyu and couldn’t help squinting his eyes, and looked at the map draped over his body again.

As Zhu Gaoyu gradually approached and the map became clearer, Geng Bingwen began to feel uneasy.

That map… he seemed to have really seen it from Taizu?!

Upon hearing Zhu Gaoyu’s words, the soldiers on the city wall couldn’t help but look at Geng Bingwen. The meaning was self-evident.

What’s going on?
It is difficult to tell whether the map is real or fake now. Although these soldiers know that Zhu Gaoyu is a big fish with an extraordinary status, and even has a close relationship with Prince of Yan Zhu Di.

But the problem is… this kid is so cunning that he wears the “Great Ming Unified Map” on his body. If he shoots an arrow at the map, who can take the responsibility…?

If the person in power was someone like Zhu Di, perhaps the matter could be forgiven as a temporary measure.

But now the one in power is Zhu Yunwen…

Before going on the expedition, Zhu Yunwen asked Geng Bingwen not to kill Zhu Di, so that he would not be branded as the one who harmed his uncle.

If this precious map is destroyed, there will probably be another storm!
not to mention……

Geng Bingwen looked into the distance again and set his sights on the thousands of cavalrymen behind Zhu Gaoyu.

These cavalrymen were all riding short and sturdy Mongolian horses. When they mounted their horses to fight, they were so fierce and brave, as if they were coming at them with great menace.

Zhu Gaoyu and Zhu Di, father and son, were able to move freely because they had the golden medal of immunity from death.

Although Zhu Gaoyu is young, he is a troublemaker!
Zhu Gaoyu would go wherever there were many people.

When he sees danger, he rushes over with a roar.

When Geng Bingwen saw this scene on the city wall, his face turned green, but he could do nothing about it.

He had never fought such a frustrating battle in his life.

Even though he had lost Baigou River and Mozhou before, Geng Bingwen was not actually panicked.

Even during the period when the Yan army besieged Zhending, Geng Bingwen would practice writing a few characters every morning to adjust his mindset.

It was precisely because he knew clearly in his heart that what the King of Yan feared was a protracted war of attrition.

However, what Geng Bingwen, and even the imperial court, feared least was a war of attrition.

Even when the feudal lords were being reduced, Geng Bingwen believed that if Emperor Jianwen had been more skilled and had chosen to follow the advice of Gao Wei and others and take it step by step, then the situation would not have turned out to be what it is now.

Of course, it’s too late to say anything now.

Geng Bingwen now felt a headache when he looked at Zhu Gaoyu’s round forehead.

It’s such a serious occasion, but when this kid comes… why does everything go wrong?

While Geng Bingwen was still thinking, Zhu Gaoyu had already begun to seek communication with Geng Bingwen.

“Marquis Changxing! Are you really not considering joining my father? It’s useless to resist stubbornly!”

Geng Bingwen didn’t want to pay attention.

Besides… resisting stubbornly?
Geng Bingwen sneered:
“Then let’s see who can outlast the other.”

“Oh……”

Zhu Gaoyu spoke meaningfully.

Then he continued to shout at the top of his voice:

“When the court replaces Duke Cao with the commander, you must not respond to Tianfu in a humiliating manner. By the way, who knows, there might be people in the court who will go against the trend and impeach you to the emperor. Alas, poor Changxing Hou, a founding father, has to end up with a dishonorable ending…”

Geng Bingwen stared suddenly, with a look of disbelief.

Li Jinglong takes charge?
Why? !

Is it just because of the loss of Mozhou?

But where did Zhu Gaoyu get the news? !
Tomorrow morning I have a flight at 6 o’clock. Now I have to wash my hair, take a shower and pack my luggage. It takes about a day to get from Hangzhou to Qiqihar. I can’t handle it. I will update 4,000 words in the next two days. When I return to the north and settle down, I will update 6,000 words.

Thank you for your understanding!

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(End of this chapter)