Defeated at Wulong River

  In the 30th year of the Ming Yongli calendar, the 15th year of the Qing Kangxi calendar, and one year after the birth of the master in 1676, in the winter of November, seeing that the Qing army had arrived at Fuzhou City under the guidance of Geng Jingzhong, Zhu Jin had no choice but to mobilize all his forces and gather a total of about 50,000 troops from various parties to station on the banks of the Wulong River for defense.

  The Wulóng Jiāng is part of the Min River, which winds its way eastward and after passing through Mǐn Hóu County, is divided into two branches by Nán Tái Island in the river. The southern branch is called the Wulóng Jiāng, while the northern branch is called the Mǎtóu Jiāng (note: after merging again downstream, it is also known as the Mǎ Jiāng). Although the Mǎtóu Jiāng waterway is narrow but deep and rapid, making it suitable for large ships to navigate, the Wulóng Jiāng has a wider surface and receives the Dà Chāng Xī tributary, with a much greater water volume than the Mǎtóu Jiāng. However, its riverbed is winding and shallow, with severe sedimentation, making it more suitable for wading rather than navigation by boat.

  Originally, Zheng Jun's army was supposed to advance to the southern Taiwan Island to control the Ma Tou River in order to utilize its powerful navy to coordinate with the blocking of the Qing army's invasion. However, the main force of the Zheng army was scattered throughout Fujian and Guangdong provinces, and by the time Zhu Jin concentrated them and arrived at the Wulon River bank, the southern Taiwan Island had already fallen under the control of the Qing army, leaving no choice but to choose to block at the Wulon River bank. Nevertheless, for this seemingly unfavorable opening, Xu Yao, the commander-in-chief of the Zheng army's Right Tiger Guard, did not think so.

  Xu Yao's position was originally the same as Liu Guoxuan and He You, all being generals of the Imperial Guard, but Liu Guoxuan and He You successively distinguished themselves in successive major wars. Although their official ranks did not advance, their positions had already surpassed those of their peers. Xu Yao was extremely jealous of this, and often privately said that he was not necessarily inferior to Liu and He.

  Regarding Xu Yuhuai's dissatisfaction with his lack of opportunities, Zhu Jin had already heard about it. Moreover, at this time Liu Guoxuan was guarding Huizhou to prepare for Shang Zhi's letter, and He You was stationed in Zhangzhou to be on guard against the suspicious actions of Liu Jinzhong's troops. With both fierce generals having other arrangements, Zhu Jin used the excuse of "one bowl of water being evenly distributed" to grant command authority to Xu Yuhuai.

  However, Zhu Jin did not expect that Xu Yao was a arrogant and incompetent person. Once he had the power in his hands, he showed off his arrogance, which made the entire army express their dissatisfaction with this commander. But the crisis of Zheng's army was not just because the commander was not using the right people. After the victory at Tuoling, the upper and lower levels of Zheng's army were extremely proud and arrogant. The central high-level officials still had worries about the Qing army, but the middle and lower-level generals and soldiers were indulging in pleasure and amusement, regarding the Qing army, which was far superior to Geng Jingzhong's fighting power, as a weak existence.

  "General Xu, the Qing army has crossed the river," Upon hearing the scout's report, a dozen or so helmeted and armored garrison commanders hastily arrived at General Xu's large camp. "We should immediately form up and march out of the camp, taking advantage of the Qing army's disarray while they are still crossing the river, to teach them a lesson and let these Tatars know the ferocity of our provincial troops."

  "Form up the camp immediately?" Xu Yao was leisurely wiping his treasured sword. "Several adults are so certain that it's not the Qing army making a feint." Xu Yao had his own judgment, he believed that the Qing army would not possibly not send out advance scouts to engage in battle before launching a full-scale attack, since it was only an advance scout battle, why make such a big fuss and have the whole army form up in array, what if they wasted their energy and let the subsequent large Qing army troops take advantage of the situation? "Let's calm down for now."

  Settle with quietness? This is what was said, for a moment all the generals couldn't help but look at each other in dismay, not knowing what to do.

  The scene was silent for half a day, and the old general naturally came forward to persuade: "General Xu, according to military strategy, an opportunity once lost will never come again. If the Qing army lands ashore and we don't take action in time, it will be too late."

  "Does General not know military strategy?" Xu Yao swept a glance at the crowd, he naturally understood what his former comrades and current subordinates were thinking, which was nothing but disobedience. But after all, he was the commander-in-chief, even if they disobeyed, they had to listen. "The general has spoken, the Qing army may be feigning, if we really fall into the Qing army's trap, who will take responsibility!"

  This big hat came down, and the officials were all speechless. If you want to advise again, they are the commander-in-chief, if you dare to overstep your authority, you will not be able to avoid being punished for disobedience in front of the army, and when the time comes, even if it is proven that your judgment was correct, I'm afraid you won't be able to get back that head of yours.

  However, the people present were mostly old veterans who had a kind of intuition about the crisis. Fortunately, Xu Yao did not order them to return to the camp to wait, so they waited anxiously in the tent for the latest report from the scouts.

  Time passed slowly in the mysterious atmosphere, and several anxious generals paced back and forth restlessly. Xu Yao, however, seemed oblivious to this, continuing to polish his sword as if it were his sole duty as commander-in-chief.

  In the midst of a stalemate, scouts sent out by the Central Army Corps rushed in almost crawling: "Report! Report to the commander, something is wrong, the Whip soldiers have landed, with a crowd of one or two hundred thousand people!"

  The tent suddenly rose, and many people looked at Xu Yao with questioning eyes. Almost simultaneously, another veteran general stepped out of the ranks and spoke: "General Xu, the military situation is clear, the Qing army is not pretending to move, hurry up and line up the array! If you're late, the Tartars will gather more and more."

  Xu Yao's face turned black as he looked at the pairs of eyes filled with disdain, contempt and doubt. His chest was filled with uncontrollable anger, but the fact had already proven that he was wrong. Trying to cover it up would only make people laugh at him. So, he immediately gave the order.

  "Now that the Qing army's movements are clear, let us form up and go into battle!"

  However, Xu Yiao's order was really issued too late. By the time Zheng Jun slowly completed the action of forming a team and leaving the camp, nearly 20,000 to 30,000 Qing troops had already escaped from the chaos when they first landed, with neat formations and morale bursting due to their easy landing on the south bank. Moreover, what was even more unfavorable for Zheng Jun was that the Qing army's transport fleet, which had been returning to Nantai Island one after another, would bring a force that could change the situation to his opponent at the most critical moment of the fierce battle.

  The cannons roared to life, as Zheng's artillery fired at the Qing army. Since the Qing army was crossing by boat, they had not brought any cannons and could only endure Zheng's bombardment. However, the expected massacre did not occur. The riverbank soil, saturated with water vapor, was extremely soft, allowing people to walk on it, but cannonballs that hit it would be directly absorbed, losing their kinetic energy and unable to bounce back to cause secondary damage. As a result, apart from those who were directly hit, the Qing army did not suffer significant losses.

  Of course, even so, the Qing army could not sit and wait for death. With a loud order, the vanguard of the Green Standard Army began to charge forward.

  Looking at the ugly Qing army's whip coming over, Zheng Jun's troops began to **. Just in time, their own attack order was also issued. The four towns of Zheng Jun were ordered to charge and kill, intending to block the Qing army on the spot. Both sides immediately collided, and the originally slippery riverbank instantly became a bloody river.

  To ask the two sides who are engaged in close combat, what is the king's way, of course, it is not a smooth gun array. The heavy weapons such as big knives, hard axes, and three-pronged steel forks are the favorites of those who are on the scene --- you cut off my arm with one knife, and I will smash your chest with a hammer in the next moment; you stab through my lower abdomen with one gun, and then I will crush your skull with a shield --- only by not fearing life and death, and not being afraid of pain, can one barely get out of the way.

  The Qing army was fighting with its back to the water, while Zheng's army was disheartened due to the commander's stubbornness. As one side weakened and the other strengthened, Zheng's army quickly retreated. Seeing that the situation was somewhat out of control, the general supervisor of the camp beside Xu Yao hastily spoke up: "General Xu, the four towns are probably unable to hold on, please order troops to be sent for reinforcement as soon as possible."

  Xu Yào did not react immediately, instead he picked up the telescope to carefully observe the rear of the Qing army. On the Wūlóng Jiāng, south of Tái Island, there were layers and layers of sail shadows, it was clear that he had no idea how many more Qing troops would be arriving soon.

  Xu Yao finished reading and his face turned pale. For a moment, he didn't know what to think. The staff on the side urged him, but saw him turn his horse's head: "Withdraw!"

  "What?" The commotion in the central camp was observed, and Zheng Jun's upper and lower ranks were struck by five thunders. The battle had just begun, and the commander-in-chief had already fled. How could this battle be fought? "The bastard surnamed Xu should be killed! He deserves to be hacked to pieces!" However, cursing couldn't change the fact that the entire front was shaking. "What to do? What else can we do? Retreat! We'll retreat too! As long as the green mountain is preserved, there's no need to worry about firewood."

  "It's all over! We're done for! Quick, retreat!" The chaos in the rear naturally affected the front-line troops like a row of dominoes, and various sounds that the Northern Army couldn't understand converged into a cacophony, repeatedly painting a picture of defeat, further exacerbating the Zheng army's failure. By now, the Zheng army was completely defeated.

  The Zheng army, who were said to be invincible in Fujian and Guangdong, dropped their weapons and turned around to flee, leaving the Qing army stunned. The Qing army had not expected that the Zheng army would collapse at the beginning of the battle. At first, they thought it was a trick by the Zheng army and subconsciously stopped attacking, until all the commanders confirmed that the enemy in front of them had retreated before resuming their full-scale offensive.

  Unfortunately, the Qing army's halt did not give Zheng's army a chance to regroup. As the saying goes, "a defeated army is like a collapsing mountain." The scattered and fleeing Zheng soldiers had lost their courage to fight back, so in the face of the Qing army's relentless pursuit, they became mere proofs of the enemy's achievements, with some even being forced to flee by floating on water in the Dachang Creek, or only a small portion of them managed to preserve their original formation after an early withdrawal from the battlefield.

  "Don't pursue exhaustively!" The order from the Qing army's frontline commander-in-chief, General Pingnan Laita, has also arrived. "Beware of the cornered mouse counterattacking."

  A great war came to an end, but this battle on the banks of Wulung River was already a great victory for the Qing army. The Zheng army's supplies and food, which had been sent to the banks of Wulung River like flowing water, were not burned by anyone, and now they have all become spoils of war for Laita. More importantly, the shadow of the invincibility of the Northern Army has taken root in the hearts of the Zheng army from top to bottom.