What made the sixth prince Mingzhong even more angry was that there was a fierce battle in the front, but Jiangyang could not be attacked for a long time; at this time, this enemy force suddenly appeared in the rear, but it formed a powerful counterattack and counterattack against the imperial army! The most terrible thing is that just when all the ministries were making emergency deployments to contain the rout and chaos caused by the enemy army, the Leishanwei rebels who were originally fighting in the front suddenly came out from the flanks! Led by Leishanwei commander Shi Hu, the Leishanwei rebels of more than 8,000 people fought with their last breath. Their momentum was overwhelming and they immediately smashed into pieces the only remaining navy team that belonged to the Navy's Nanda Camp after the mutiny!
Caught off guard, not only the troops belonging to the Jiangnan Navy Camp located in the east were overwhelmed, but with the success of the initial raid, the Leishan Guards, who had gained momentum, took the defeated navy soldiers and headed towards Nanda. The Yingsui Army and the Jeju Guards, who were overwhelmed by the sudden attack by the rebels from behind, launched a two-sided attack! At this time, even if the Jeju Guards wanted to turn around and break away from the battle, it was impossible, because the rebels who appeared inexplicably from behind succeeded in a sneak attack. While the Leishan Guards launched a flank attack, the Jiangyang Guards rebels, who had been shrinking in defense from the front, Suddenly, they changed their stubborn attitude and became more and more courageous as they fought. They tightly entangled the vanguard of the Jeju Guards. If they were forced to leave at this time, I am afraid that the losses would be even greater!
At the critical juncture, the sixth prince Mingzhong finally responded in time, and the other two supporting troops from the Jiangbei Navy Camp and the Luo City Guards finally turned their troops. Among them, the Los Angeles Guards did not directly rescue the attacked Jeju Guards from the front. Instead, they made a curve and a semi-arc. Following the same pattern, they suddenly attacked the unidentified unit behind the Jeju Guards. The rebels! At the same time, the soldiers of the Jiangbei Navy Camp were divided into several small teams. They penetrated into the defensive formation on the east side and organized a counterattack of a certain scale. After losing some soldiers and horses, they finally succeeded temporarily. Contained Lei Shanwei's counterattack on the flank!
After a short flanking raid and a temporary check of troops, the number of Jeju Guards was reduced by nearly half! If it weren't for the imperial army's quick response and huge strength advantage, I'm afraid that with just this wave of attacks, the rebels would have won the Huaidi Battle! And now, although the rebels behind were decisively restrained by the Luo City Guards, and the Leishan Guards were successfully blocked from the second line of defense, after this short period of confrontation, the rebels who had been holding on to the front were Jiang Yangwei has also broken out of the defense line and joined the siege of the imperial army!
In a brief change, the imperial army immediately changed from actively attacking to being attacked on three sides!
The two sides fought for less than half an hour, and the imperial army immediately fell into a passive position!
If another person were to take command, perhaps in this situation, they would have no choice but to retreat. After all, at this time, although the situation is unfavorable, it is still a very cost-effective thing to evacuate the entire army at a lower cost. However, at this time, the person on the battlefield was the Sixth Prince Mingzhong. Among the many princes of Emperor Qi Yuan, Ming Zhong was considered the ugliest in appearance. However, in terms of bravery, even compared to the well-known second prince Ming Yi, he was definitely not far behind. In addition, Mingzhong has a tenacious and courageous character deep down, which makes him more resistant to pressure and strong in the face of force. Therefore, even though he was attacked from three sides, and the darkness obviously increased the chaos on the battlefield, Mingzhong still did not give up easily.
Ming Zhong, who was personally on the front line and in the angle between the enemy forces behind him and the Leishan Guards' attack, only briefly observed the situation on the field before issuing an order to storm. The entire rear column of the army turned into the front column, with the rear column of the Los Angeles Guards as the vanguard, and violently attacked the unidentified enemy force sneaking up from the north! Only a small number of the soldiers belonging to the Jiangbei Navy and the remnants of the Jeju Guard were left behind, desperately resisting the Leishan Guard's offensive on a rough patchwork of defense lines. Ming Zhong personally led a part of his bodyguards and retinue as the rear, and tried his best to block the counterattack of Jiangyang Guards led by Zheng Sanshan!
On a cool autumn night, a brutal fight took place near Jiangyang, which lasted for a full hour and a half!
Under the unstoppable and sharp offensive of the Los Angeles Guards, the enemy force behind the Jeju Guards that had successfully attacked the Jeju Guards earlier and appeared to be overwhelming, finally gradually showed a sluggish posture. In such a narrow encounter, they could only rely on human flesh to kill them head-on. In the battle that determined life and death, these people were finally no match for the well-trained elite divisions. Finally, there were no more enemies in front of them. The vanguard team of the Los City Guards finally broke through the siege and broke out of the opponent's blockade!
Surprisingly, the Luo City Guards had just broken through the siege, and the enemy force that seemed unstoppable before immediately became like scattered sand. The wounded and defeated soldiers screamed, and immediately fled in all directions. It's no longer the same as before. Like bandits and bandits, the birds and beasts dispersed. In this way, there was no threat from one side, and the entire imperial armyThe situation was immediately relieved. The relieved Luo City Guards continued to hunt down the stragglers, and at the same time divided two forces to resolve the predicament of the Jeju Guards.
At this point in the war, the situation was once again brought back by the imperial army. After seeing that nothing could be done, Shi Hu and Zheng Sanshan made the decision to retreat. Both sides fought and retreated, and finally gradually broke away from the battle. They repaired and deployed their defenses until daylight broke out, and the new battlefield situation finally stabilized. The imperial army, which had regained control of the battlefield, swept the battlefield in batches, and a special scout team was also sent to investigate the battlefield to the north. Not only Ming Zhong was puzzled, but many generals were also puzzled. It was clear that King Wu's rebels were only those who could be seen. Where did the inexplicable team come from last night? Just looking at their clothes, they were a little different from ordinary rebels. Although they had weapons and armor, they were not very sophisticated and looked like a team that had been put together in a hurry. However, in the fight last night, the opponent's bravery and bloodthirsty seemed to be several times higher than that of ordinary rebels! After checking the checkpoints, looking at the special clothes and buns of these corpses, and smelling the fishy smell of the sea that could not even hide the smell of blood on the corpses, Mingzhong and others finally realized that these people were not subordinates at all. The rebels of King Wu are actually pirates wandering in the southeast! And among the large number of corpses of pirates, there seemed to be some Jiang pirates among them!
Jiang Kou!
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No wonder the other party appeared so suddenly, no wonder no one thought that King Wu still held such a power in his hands! Judging from the scale of the battle last night, the number of this mixed bandit army was at least five thousand! Such a large group of bandits could not be recruited by the King of Wu in a short period of time. With King Wu's consistent style and method of doing things, he must have interacted with these people a long time ago. The Japanese Japanese pirates on the southeast coast, the fur seals that float on the sea all year round, the sea gangs that go out from the local area, the river bandits that lurk secretly on the river all year round Once these people are all connected in series, some things that have always been puzzling in the past will have answers.
For a long time, the imperial court has repeatedly failed to suppress bandits on the southeast coast, investing a lot of money, but achieving little results, which seriously slowed down the development of agriculture, commerce and the population along the coast. Despite repeated edicts to urge the people to suppress it, there was still no effort. In the past, the gangs that had been active on the river gradually disappeared due to the development of the navy and frequent clarifications in the past two years. The elimination of Jiang bandits has always been considered a great achievement of the navy. However, now that I think about it, whether it is the difficulty of destroying the pirates or the sudden disappearance of the Jiang pirates, it is definitely a chess game laid out by King Wu Zhang Xiu a long time ago. If there hadn't been today's battle, I'm afraid the world would still be kept in the dark by the revealed appearance.
The latest battle report was quickly written out and sent to the capital on a 800-mile journey.
In the battle of Jiangyang, the imperial army suffered heavy losses, with nearly 6,000 people killed directly! The number of people damaged and injured was more than 10,000! The number of people who can directly participate in the battle has suddenly dropped from more than 40,000 to less than 30,000! On the other hand, the biggest direct loss of King Wu's rebels was the Jianghai bandits who attacked from behind, and more than 3,000 people were killed. Lei Shanwei lost more than 2,000 people. Jiangyang Guard suffered the least losses. Relying on the initial defense and the advantage of pursuing in the end, by the end of the war, Jiangyang Guard's total casualties were only about a thousand.
Comparing the two, in the battle of Jiangyang, the imperial court's northern line really suffered a big loss!
The military report was sent to the capital, and the court was in an uproar!
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In an instant, the court hall was filled with excitement. The voices that had been singing praises suddenly turned into one-sided criticism. The sixth prince Mingzhong, who had been praised for a few days, suddenly disappeared from these voices, while almost all the generals who fought with him were praised. The criticism is perfect. Zhezi requesting the emperor to reprimand and punish the generals in front flew like snowflakes onto Emperor Qiyuan's desk.
With such a defeat, Emperor Qi Yuan was also very angry, but as an emperor who knew a lot about military affairs, he responded to this situation much more calmly than those ministers who only knew how to talk on paper. Emperor Qiyuan did not issue an edict immediately. On the contrary, all the news related to the frontline war was initially suppressed by him. Even those alarmist news that seemed to delay the imminent danger of the imperial court, Emperor Qiyuan did not frown. Put it aside for a moment.