Insufficient balance

  "Wu Pingbo, the Qing army is too powerful, building a city under their noses is still too arrogant even if the cement is extraordinary." Zheng's army had less than 10,000 men, while the opposing Qing army had over 100,000. The power ratio was already disproportionate. Liu Guoxian still wanted to take risks and build a city on the front line, which made even Wu Shu, a brave general, somewhat fearful. "Shouldn't we think this through?"

  "Don't worry, Dingxi." Liu Guoxuan, however, had a confident air about him, and at the very least, a part of it was due to the armor-piercing arrow given to him by Zheng Kecang. "The commander has already made foolproof arrangements; if the Qing army doesn't come, then so be it, but if they do, I'll make sure they have no return."

  Wu Shu was not unaware that a large number of high-quality armor had arrived in the army, but in his mind, relying solely on several hundred sets of armor to confront an enemy ten times their own strength seemed somewhat like trying to stop a chariot with bare arms. However, looking at Liu Guoxuan's stubborn expression, Wu Shu, who came from the new auxiliary army, did not dare to repeatedly provoke the now extremely popular Liu Guoxuan.

  However, Liu Guoxuan's confidence did not come from the fact that he had never been defeated in a hundred battles and had no one left to fear. In fact, although the Qing army in Zhangzhou seemed numerous and powerful, they were limited by the terrain and could not deploy all their troops on the battlefield at once. Therefore, the Zheng army was actually facing only a limited force that was gradually being reinforced, and there were deep-seated contradictions between the Eight Banners and the Green Standard Army, between the Fujian Green Standard Army and the Green Standard Army from other provinces, and between the regular soldiers and the militia. Not everyone was willing to expend all their strength in Zhangzhou, so the pressure that the Zheng army actually faced might be smaller than imagined.

  But as the saying goes, plans are not as good as changes. On the battlefield, there are always unexpected events. When Liu Guoxuan heard that he was building a fort at Sakao in Kandongqiao, Dongshan, because of Wu Sangui's death and Zhou Jun's successive defeats, Geng Jingzhong, who was worried about the Qing court's settlement after autumn, seemed to have found an opportunity to change his fate. He suggested sending troops to eliminate this heart disease. Under his insistence, Fujian Governor Yang Jie and Ninghai General Lahada led a total of 50,000 soldiers to kill him.

  "He Yu, Wu Shu, Lin Sheng, Jiang Sheng, you four each lead a battalion to charge into the enemy's formation." The Zheng army had only 10,000 soldiers in total and also had to defend against the enemy at the coast of Haicheng, so there were only about 2,000 soldiers who could actually engage in battle. Facing an enemy with 25 times their numbers, Liu Guoxuan seemed not to have a single thread of fear. "I will personally guard the fort, if we lose, I will first cut off your heads and then use my own head to repay the king's kindness." The four high-ranking officers looked at each other, Liu Guoxuan's words were bold, but now the Zheng army had only about 400 soldiers per battalion, which means they had gloriously promoted from military officials to generals who needed to personally participate in hand-to-hand combat. "What, are you afraid?" Seeing the reaction of the four, Liu Guoxuan urged them on. "If you're afraid, it doesn't matter, you stay and guard, I will personally lead the charge!"

  "Please be at ease, General!" The four men gritted their teeth and bowed in unison. "We are willing to fight to the death to repay Your Majesty's kindness."

  ??”

  When the dark and pressing Qing army approached, more than 1,600 Zheng soldiers had already lined up outside the fort. Looking at the silent but neatly arranged Zheng army formation, a sense of killing began to shroud the Qing army leaders who thought they had already won. After a silent confrontation for a while, the Qing army, unable to bear the pressure, launched an attack.

  The Qing army's attack was naturally blocked by the Zheng army's artillery on the fortifications, but the Zheng army had few cannons and the Qing army had many soldiers. The result of the cannon fire could not change the balance of forces, and soon the dense Qing army grew larger and larger in the eyes of the Zheng army officers who were waiting with bated breath.

  ??

  The Zheng army soldiers, who had been resting on the ground to avoid exhaustion, stood up. With 400 men wearing Qing Tang armor as the vanguard, they charged forward like four sharp knives, fiercely attacking the enemy. The sound of their battle cries instantly drowned out even the thunderous cannon fire.

  Qing Bing saw the Zheng army wearing armor in front of him, and subconsciously thought that his opponent's identity was not ordinary. However, what made him stunned was that after he slashed a knife on his opponent's body, there wasn't even a white mark left behind. Confused, he just wanted to raise his knife, but a cold light flashed in front of him, and then he only felt his body lighten up, and then he fell into unconsciousness.

  Qing Bing saw Zheng Jun wearing the armor of Chuizi, but before he could dodge Zheng Jun's attack, he was pushed to the ground with great force and trampled by his own comrades, suffocating him to death.

  ??

  He You led the charge, loudly shouting and swinging his axe. Relying on the excellent defense of his armor, he didn't need to worry about getting hurt at all. He just needed to keep crushing forward, cutting down the Qing soldiers in front of him, opening up a path for the lightly armored troops behind him.

  Jiang Sheng, who was also leading the charge, was relatively unlucky. After breaking through a wave of Qing soldiers, he and several bodyguards found themselves within range of the enemy's archers. However, despite being shot full of arrows, Jiang emerged unscathed, dramatically covered in arrow feathers and shafts, along with several similarly uninjured bodyguards, and charged back into battle once again.

  "What? What?" Geng Jingzhong and others who were watching from a distance stared with their eyes wide open at the Zheng army's armored soldiers rushing forward like monsters in front of the formation. Some people who knew some rumors were asking around everywhere. "Brother, is this not Zheng's famous Iron Man Army? It's really impressive to see it in person!"

  "Dispatch troops, dispatch more troops!" Geng Jingzhong shouted in a flustered tone, still with the air of Zeng Guofan's pacification of the South King, without any regard for the awkward-looking generals and commanders. "I don't believe it, these Zheng rebels are made of iron, dispatch troops, dispatch more troops, use human waves to kill them!"

  The Qing army's second and third formations moved in succession, but under the blockade of artillery fire, they lost many lives and barely charged into the battle formation. However, every time the Zheng army, wearing heavy armor, was exhausted, a fresh team would rush up and make sudden attacks from left and right, causing the Qing army's attempt to encircle and annihilate them to fall through. It turned out that Liu Guoxuan had used the remaining 500 men as a reserve force, rotating them in shifts to wear the heavy armor and fight, instantly turning the Qing army's plan for a decisive battle into an illusion.

  From noon to 3 pm, for three whole hours, more than 2,000 Zheng soldiers used their flesh and blood to block the Qing army's numerous attacks. Although the physical strength of the Zheng army's armor was consumed extremely quickly, and the casualties among ordinary Zheng soldiers were not small, compared to the Qing army who left behind several times as many corpses, they were undoubtedly the strong ones.

  "Report!" A mounted soldier jumped off his horse and rolled in front of Geng Jingzhong and others. "Reporting to the various masters, Bazuo Ling has died for the country."

  Bazoheleng's name was Bashitu, a deputy leader who came with General Naha Dara of the Ninghai army, one of the eight banner troops stationed in Zhejiang. Logically, his death should have been mourned by Naha Dara, but Geng Jingzhong usurped authority and ordered: "A general dies after a hundred battles, it is an honor for a humble deputy leader to die for the country, don't bother with him, order the fourth battalion to attack!"

  "Enough!" Laha Da snapped the whip in his hand and pointed at Geng Jingzhong with the broken end, cursing. "If you have the guts, go ahead and fight Zheng's rebel army to the death, using our men's blood to protect your precious title! Bah! What nonsense." After that, he urged his warhorse forward, snorting in anger. "Withdraw! A ruined camp, losing a few thousand men, not worth it."

  Yang Jie naturally had to curry favor with this prince, hastily ordering: "Sound the retreat, gather our troops! We're heading back to Chaozhou!"

  Being treated so ruthlessly by the two, Geng Jingzhong became somewhat restless. He didn't want to fall out with the two who had a deep foundation, but since the matter concerned his own life and death, he couldn't help but make some noise: "Lord La, this is treason, I will report you to the Emperor."

  "Do you think only you can petition the emperor?" Rahada threw the broken whip at Geng Jingzhong's feet, looking at him with disdain. "Ben Bo also wants to petition the emperor, let's see who the emperor believes." As he said this, a sly smile spread across Rahada's face. "Let's play it cool, Geng, and see who falls first, you or Ben Bo."

  Geng Jingzhong's face changed, and his eyes immediately shifted to Yang Jie's body. Yang Jie didn't look at him, Geng Jingzhong knew it was not good, just about to make a round of excuses, suddenly the battlefield transmitted a string of popping sounds like fried beans, several people looked up, but saw that between the retreating Qing army and the Zheng army who couldn't hold on either, there appeared a new team of cavalry, this team of Zheng army all held firearms in their hands, the previous sound was probably them releasing gunfire.

  "What's so great about the fire spear, we're not like we haven't seen it before. In those years, the Guanning Army had many fire spears, but weren't they defeated by our ancestors' iron cavalry?" Laha said nonchalantly, but he didn't know that these Zheng army fire spear troops would soon become one of the nightmares of the Qing army in Zhangzhou. "It's just taking advantage of us not wanting to fight again to gain some benefits, don't mind them."

  "Labazhi is right." Yang Jie flattered. "Maybe it's Zheng Jun who wants to lure us back, we won't fall for this trick." However, Yang Jie didn't get to where he was today just by flattering and bootlicking, he also helped Lahada in front of Geng Jingzhong. "King Geng, don't think too much about it, even if we take down this stronghold today, we still can't catch up with Siming, let's wait for the naval forces from Fuzhou to arrive and then attack together."

  Geng Jingzhong heard this and, swallowing his anger, took the opportunity to shift the blame: "What Yang Jun said was that today's defeat was due to my haste. I don't know if Ba Zhangjing's body has been retrieved or not. Zheng Yi didn't mutilate the corpse, so should we leave a few men to clean up and comfort Ba Zhangjing's family?"

  "There's no need to trouble the prince with this matter, it has already been taken care of." How could Yang Jue possibly let go of this opportunity to get closer to Huang Daitou and Hong Daitou? "The prince should still restrain his troops and be careful of Liu Ze's counterattack instead."

  ??”

  Geng Jing was dragged to the back of the team with a reluctant heart, at this time Laha Da turned to Yang Jie's side and said without reservation: "Old Yang, what did you say to that hypocrite just now? We can't tolerate such nonsense."

  "Prince Bei, what are you saying? The King of Jingnan is also a high-ranking minister of the Emperor." Yang Jie first raised his voice and then lowered it. "Prince Bei, isn't it that we need to use the troops in his hands now?"

  "You're quite a sly one," Laha said with a couple of snorts, also lowering his voice. "That's true, if Zheng hadn't been driven out to sea at the time, otherwise..." Laha made a beheading gesture. "He'd have had to send this little scoundrel to Caishi Street for a taste of the blade."

  "That's right!" Yang Jie responded with a smile. "If this kind of rebelliousness is not dealt with, who can the imperial court expect to be loyal ministers?" Yang Jie raised his head and nodded towards Geng Jingzhong's direction. "Prince Bei, don't you think so?"

  "Hahaha," Laha laughed wildly. "Right, right, this is what they mean by 'great minds think alike'."

  ??”