Chapter 29: Zhu Di's Opponent

  Zhu Di's previous military actions were all conducted near his own territory, so even if the Southern Army was defeated, they could reorganize and launch another attack. However, this time it was different; if the Northern Army occupied Jinan, they would occupy this strategic location on land and water, and be able to defend Beijing in retreat or attack the capital in advance.

  Actually, Zhu Di also thought so. He could count the few guns under Zhu Yunwen's command with his eyes closed. Who else could resist him? He had already packed his bags and was ready to go fishing at Taiye Lake in the city.

  When Li Jinglong was fighting the Baigou River War, an official from Shandong took on the task of transporting grain for Li Jinglong's army. He did his job very responsibly and the grain never ran out. However, his hard work could not change the outcome of the battle. When Li Jinglong retreated, he followed him but his speed was much slower than that of the long-legged general.

  "The commander has fled, can you hold on, sir?"

  Tie Xuan, a native of Dengzhou, Henan Province (now Dengzhou City, Henan Province), had an unremarkable career, but what is astonishing is that he was a scholar who knew nothing about military affairs. During the Hongwu period, he was directly appointed as a secretary in the Ministry of Rites from being a student at the Imperial Academy. After Emperor Jianwen ascended to the throne, he was appointed as a participating official in Shandong Province.

  Because in his eyes, Zhu Di was not a hero who suffered from the persecution of treacherous officials and was forced to rebel, but just a chaotic minister who stirred up trouble in a peaceful and prosperous world. His moral concept made it impossible for him to accept such a person as the new ruler of the country.

  All these were of no use, but he had his own weapon, that is, patriotic passion and unyielding conviction.

  Tie Xuan met this old acquaintance in Lin Yi, and the two of them wept bitterly, expressing their feelings and vowing to defend Jinan to the death.

  But what was even more unexpected was that after he was released, he did not return home to continue his life, but instead gathered his students and taught the last lesson of his life in Minglun Hall where he normally lectured.

  The late Wang Sheng and Tie Hua, who is on his way, are the same person. They both fought for their own beliefs in their hearts. The difference lies only in that one had no way to dedicate himself to the country, while the other was able to make a contribution.

  He had intended to put up some resistance, but he did not expect Zhu Di would not give him this opportunity.

  In the city of Jinan, Tie Xuan met another person who would influence his life. His name was Sheng Yong, a commander under Li Jinglong. Although Sheng's name had the character "yong" which means foolish or stupid, he himself was not foolish at all. On the contrary, he was an extremely capable military leader, but under Li Jinglong, even the most talented people were useless.

  This is another seemingly one-sided battle, and many people in the role of Shu Sheng Tie Huan would have surrendered long ago. The fact is that Li Jinglong's strongest 600,000 army has been defeated, and now there are only some fish in the city, and in terms of military literacy, Tie Huan and others are no match for Zhu Di.

  Zhu Di was too proud and forgot that he had defeated stronger enemies in the past. The outcome of war is not necessarily determined by advanced weapons or the number of soldiers, but by human determination and wisdom.

  After making thorough preparations, Zhu Di dispatched his soldiers to attack Jinan. The Northern Army attacked day and night, with Tie Xuan personally directing the battle on the city wall, leading by example, and his behavior moved the originally disheartened soldiers. In the eyes of these defeated warriors, Tie Xuan was a trustworthy and reliable person. Under Tie Xuan's encouragement, the morale of the defending officers and men greatly improved, and they successively repelled Zhu Di's multiple attacks. The Northern Army lingered under the city for several days, never gaining an entrance, and every day they only carried back countless corpses, with no other progress.

  As expected, Zhu Di was deceived. He really came alone. The city gate of Jinan City was wide open, as if waiting for the arrival of its new master. In fact, this defenseless city was an iron hoop that had been opened like a sack, waiting for the prey to enter.

  This incident made Zhu Di extremely angry, he rarely trusted others, but was deceived, his not-so-pure heart was hurt by Tie Xuan's ruthlessness, so he ordered the soldiers to launch a fierce attack on Jinan City again, but Jinan was still heavily guarded, and after three months of fighting, there was no progress.

  Tie Xuan is finally going to face the biggest crisis since he has been stationed in Jinan. At that time, Tie Xuan did not have rocket artillery, and relying on fire guns and bows and arrows, it was impossible to destroy the enemy's artillery positions. He could only watch as the Northern Army soldiers sang a little tune while loading ammunition, then ignited the fuse, sending various large iron balls as gifts to him in the form of air drops.

  What is it that makes Zhu Di so hesitant? It seems that Tie Xuan's hands are empty, and even if there was something valuable, as long as the cannons blast into the city, everything will belong to him anyway, what is there to be afraid of?

  To know that there is nothing in this world that Zhu Di dare not do, he dares to be rude to the emperor, dares to look down on the emperor, and even dares to openly rebel, yet these wooden plaques are just ordinary wood with a few words written on them, why does Tie Xuan conclude that Zhu Di absolutely dare not damage these wooden plaques?

  This is absolutely unacceptable. Zhu Di certainly knew that these so-called divine plaques might have been made by the Iron Cap faction, who chopped down trees on the mountain and found a few fortune tellers to write them. What kind of sacredness can be spoken of?

  Zhu Di did not dare to fire the cannon and had no choice but to withdraw his troops back to camp. This should be the most embarrassing and depressing day in Zhu Di's military career.

  It seems that heaven will not let me dominate this era alone, I have failed, Jinan does not belong to me, at least not now, let's retreat.

  The victory of this war brought a glimmer of hope to the Emperor Jianwen, who had been depressed for a long time. He promoted Tie Xuan to Governor of Shandong and later appointed him Minister of War. This scholar, who was not from a military background, was able to hold the highest military position, thanks to Zhu Yuanzhang's purge of meritorious officials and Li Jinglong's stupidity.

  However, Jianwen Emperor rejected their request. His reason for rejection seemed to be quite sufficient as well. Li Jinglong was his relative, and Jianwen Emperor had always been kind-hearted and merciful, with a spirit of universal love. He even showed concern and care towards his uncle who rebelled against him, let alone a defeated cousin. Moreover, in his view, Li Jinglong's defeat was already an established fact, and killing him would not serve much purpose. Keeping him alive would only waste some food each year, so why bother taking someone's life?

  After reorganization, the Southern Army, redeployed and ready to launch a counterattack against Zhu Di, would no longer be led by the conservative Geng Bingwen and the incompetent Li Jinglong. Instead, Zhu Di would face the strongest lineup of the Southern Army, composed of a new generation of excellent generals, and would suffer the most painful defeat of his life.

  In the second year of Jianwen (1340), in November, Zhu Di launched an attack on Cangzhou, which was heavily guarded by the Southern Army. He annihilated tens of thousands of Southern soldiers and captured General Xu Kai. After that, Zhu Di continued to launch fierce attacks without stopping, capturing Dezhou, Jining, Linqing and other places.

  To lure Zhu Di into a decisive battle, Sheng Yong abandoned many cities and avoided his sharp edge. He arranged his troops to retreat step by step, luring Zhu Di to continue advancing. He believed that the defeat in Jinan would make Zhu Di more aggressive and easier to fall into his own trap.

  He was not unaware of Sheng Yong's intentions, but he had full confidence in himself. In his youth, he had joined the army and received guidance from countless famous generals. He had experienced the bloody killings on the battlefield and defeated countless formidable enemies, with abundant combat experience. The southern army's generals were either too old or too young, and it was impossible for them to be their own opponents.

  In the era of cold weapons, cavalry was the main force in war. In the past, when dealing with foreign nomadic invasions, cavalry was the most important military reliance. And in Zhu Di's time, the northern and southern armies recognized the most excellent cavalry general as Zhu Di himself. He had personally led a large army to penetrate deep into the desert, clearing out the Northern Yuan, accumulating rich military experience, and having command ability and strong soldiers that were worthy of pride. His opponent was just a defeated subordinate under his own hand, and compared to himself, Sheng Yong was just an unknown small soldier.

  Zhu Di's army continued to advance, and in December of the same year, the Northern Army captured Dong'e, Dongping, and other places one after another, continuously advancing towards Duchang, the battlefield previously designed by Sheng Yong.

  He first served as a general under Geng Bingwen, and experienced the defeat of Zhending. Then, when Li Jinglong replaced Geng Bingwen's position, he followed Li Jinglong. It can be said that under Li Jinglong, Sheng Yong still learned many things, such as how to escape after being defeated in battle, how to choose an escape route, and how to gather the remaining soldiers.

  Of course, if Sheng Yong continued to muddle along like this, then there would be no legend of Sheng Yong in history. At most, he would leave behind a record that some general named Sheng Yong was beheaded in a certain battle. Later facts proved that he was a person with outstanding military talent, although he did not follow the right leader, but in those repeated failures, what he learned was far from just escaping. Failure tempered his heart, and the most precious wealth he gained from failure was that he could finally stand up from the eyes of others' doubts and accusations, and loudly say: "Victory will eventually belong to me."

  After careful planning, he specially set up a unique battle plan based on Zhu Di's attack method and prepared to meet Zhu Di in Dongchang. In fact, Sheng Yong also knew that the victory of Jinan was somewhat accidental, and it would be very difficult to defeat Zhu Di in a field battle. The northern army led by Zhu Di had long relied on cavalry as its main force, and had fought many battles against Mongolia, excelling at outdoor warfare. Sheng Yong was indeed not an outstanding cavalry commander, but he dared to fight against Zhu Di because he had his own secret weapon and countermeasures.

  Sheng Yong didn't speak, but quietly looked at his generals. Slowly, the generals also calmed down. At this time, Sheng Yong finally spoke: "I believe that you are not afraid of death, and the King of Yan is indeed formidable. But if we just defend the city and wait for him to invade and then sweep away, we will be driven out by others. When can we rest? I ask everyone to unite and cooperate with each other, and fight a decisive battle. Although victory or defeat is not yet certain, loyalty and righteousness will surely leave a good name in history."

  Dongchang Decisive Battle

  Sheng Yong deeply knew that to defeat Zhu Di in a cavalry charge was no different from a fool talking about dreams. Therefore, he played his own strengths and equipped himself with a large number of firearms and crossbows. In order to increase the lethality, he also ordered people to apply poison on the arrows of the crossbow, not giving the Northern Army time to wait for rescue after being injured, and must achieve one hit kill.

  Zhu Di's move was really old-fashioned, and Sheng Yong had long been prepared for it. Not only did he dispatch heavy troops to protect his left wing, but he also designed a trap that Zhu Di could never have imagined. He decided to use the situation to his advantage, taking advantage of Zhu Di's attacking style to thoroughly defeat him.

  A thought flashed through Zhu Di's mind, "Fooled"

  Reinforcements

  When he learned that Zhu Di was surrounded, he immediately led his own guards to charge into the Southern Army's encirclement. This man was indeed one of the few who were brave and loyal, and also notorious for being reckless with his life. Previously, he had a glorious record of leading over thirty men to pursue an army of several tens of thousands. This time, he did not disappoint Zhu Di either. After charging left and right, he actually found Zhu Di in the chaotic army and charged out of the encirclement together with him.

  After Zhu Di was surrounded, the most anxious one was not only Zhu Neng alone, Zhang Yu was also one of them. He was recognized as Zhu Di's first general, and in previous battles, he had led by example, with great achievements. Zhu Di also had a deep friendship with him, seeing his beloved leader being trapped, Zhang Yu followed Zhu Neng's example, desperately charging into the encirclement.

  At this time, Zhu Di had already been rescued by Zhu Neng, while the Southern Army soldiers who were blinded by anger saw that the duck they had in their hands flew away. They wanted to find someone to vent their anger on, and Zhang Yu's appearance just satisfied their wishes. So everyone rushed up, each with a knife, and chopped Zhang Yu into minced meat. At this time, the generals who used to be chased by Zhu Di all realized that it was time for revenge. They didn't need Sheng Yong's mobilization, and they desperately pursued and killed the fleeing dogs. The Northern Army immediately collapsed in disarray.