Chapter 66: The Rout of Dengzhou

All these things constituted an unsolved mystery, and it also made the rebels always wary of the Qimu Island forces.

Kong Youde slowly stuffed the stack of paper into his bosom and asked, “Why does the master want to inform us of the location of the government army’s grain depot?”

Chen Sigen smiled slightly, “If you think it’s useful, take it and use it. If you think it’s useless, burn it.”

Kong Youde was not reconciled, “To be honest, I still have some doubts about this… Could it be a trap?” He deliberately tried to provoke the other party in order to get some information.

Chen Sigen still smiled slightly, “Is it necessary to set a trap?” His expression changed, and he sneered, “If so, your heads would have been spread all over the nine borders a few months ago. Do we need to wait until today?!”

These words were extremely impolite and arrogant. A wave of anger rushed to Kong Youde’s heart, but he knew that the other party was not bragging. He suppressed the anger in his heart, cupped his fists, and said, “Then thank you, Lord Lu. I will take my leave.” After saying that, he got up and left.

After obtaining this information, Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde discussed that they probably didn’t have much time left if they continued to defend the city. The government army that had come included the elite Guanning army, among which there were two thousand so-called most skilled foreign soldiers, all of whom were Mongolian and Later Jin soldiers who had rebelled and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. In a field battle, their own side was no match for them. The battle at Beima Town had already fully demonstrated that their cavalry, which was hastily assembled by plundering livestock, was no match for the field cavalry.

In this way, a surprise attack on the grain depot to force the government troops to retreat became their only possible choice besides fleeing by sea.

However, the rebels’ area of activity had now been compressed to Dengzhou. To go to Qingzhou to seize grain, they would have to cross the Laizhou area. This was a very risky matter. There were now thousands of government troops led by Sun Yuanhua and Zhang Tao in Laizhou City—all of whom were Shandong soldiers and southern soldiers who had fought with them to the death. If they were to block them in the middle, it would cause serious losses whether they were going or coming back. It was even possible that the entire raiding force would be wiped out.

The two of them deliberated again and again, and finally decided that it was not too late. Taking advantage of the fact that the government troops had just arrived at the city and had not yet formed an encirclement, and that it was snowing heavily and there were very few people active in the wild, they sent out cavalry to launch a surprise attack on Qingzhou, and burn down the government troops’ grain depot in one fell swoop.

After the plan was decided, with Kong Youde’s personal guards as the core, they secretly mobilized the personal guards of the former Dongjiang generals, a total of six hundred elite cavalry. Each person was given a full meal, warm clothes, and silver. Each person was equipped with a horse and a mule, and carried six days’ worth of dry rations and horse feed. Taking advantage of the heavy snow, they quietly opened the city gates and secretly marched along the coastline.

It snowed heavily all the way. The goose-feather-like snow quickly covered the tracks of the men and horses. In the cold and freezing weather, the government army’s scouts no longer went to farther places to scout. Kong Youde’s six hundred men and horses had a smooth journey. They entered the Qingzhou area without any major losses.

Although Qingzhou was one of the three eastern prefectures, because of the successful defense of Laizhou, it had suffered much less damage in the Dengzhou-Laizhou rebellion than Dengzhou and Laizhou. Except for being swept by the rebel forces when they returned to Dengzhou at the beginning, it was relatively stable afterwards, not a scene of barren land for thousands of miles and no human traces. Naturally, the government forces’ state of alert was also much worse.

Kong Youde led the cavalry to suddenly appear in Qingzhou, breaking through a series of grain storage points such as Zhuqiao and Huangshanguan, and burning tens of thousands of shi of grain and supplies transported by the government troops. Yang Jin, the Qingzhou Dao, hastily led his troops to meet the battle, but was defeated and killed in action. For a time, the Shandong field camp, which had originally planned to “achieve complete success,” was suddenly in chaos.

This winter was originally very cold. It was already snowing heavily in November. In addition, the sea breeze on the coast was biting. The soldiers braved the snow and frost, and their skin was chapped. They suffered greatly from the cold winter. The attacking government troops did not even have enough winter clothing. Zhu Dadian and Xie Sanbin sent people everywhere to prepare cotton clothes and fur coats, and also searched for reed mats and liquor to reward the soldiers. They also issued rewards many times to stabilize the morale of the army.

However, the rumor that the grain had been burned suddenly appeared. Before they could find out the source of the rumor, the urgent messenger from Qingzhou had already arrived at the camp.

This was no less than a bolt from the blue for Zhu Dadian and others. It was cold and freezing, and tens of thousands of troops were stationed under a strong city, and their food supply was cut off. They were suddenly in a desperate situation of total annihilation!

After receiving this urgent document, Zhu Dadian immediately summoned the civil and military officials in the camp to discuss countermeasures. The generals’ opinions were unanimous: while there was still four days’ worth of grain in the camp, they should break camp and retreat to Laizhou, Qingzhou, and other places to obtain food nearby. After the grain route was restored, they would advance again.

Zhu Dadian was still hesitating. He had put his heart and soul into this siege of Dengzhou. He was watching the rebels become fish in a pot, but suddenly the grain route was cut off. According to the urgent report from Qingzhou, the rebels seemed to have sent a group of cavalry to raid the various grain depots in Qingzhou.

Since the enemy was just raiding and had no rear support, they could not last long. There were still four days’ worth of grain in the camp. If they could raise it urgently, the siege of Dengzhou could still be maintained. At this time, he thought of Lord Lu. He had already promised to send a thousand shi of grain. He thought it would be possible to ask him to send a few thousand more shi. He heard that he had taken in tens of thousands of refugees in the Zhaoyuan area, so he must have a large amount of grain reserves. Huangxian County was not far from here…

Therefore, he did not immediately order a retreat, but let the generals temporarily return to their respective camps, guard the camp, and wait for orders.

After the generals left, Zhu Dadian immediately sent someone to fly to Laizhou, asking Sun Yuanhua to send troops to first raise a batch of grain in Laizhou City and transport it to the camp to stabilize the morale of the army. He continued to discuss with several important advisors, estimating various difficult situations that might be encountered and thinking of some coping methods. While they were discussing, they suddenly heard a series of cannon shots from Dengzhou City, and cheers came one after another.

Zhu Dadian frowned and asked:

“Why is it so noisy?!”

In a moment, the noise in the city seemed to have spread to the camp. People were shouting and horses were neighing, and it was a mess. Jin Guoqi, the commander of the Liaodong troops who were suppressing the rebellion in Dengzhou, and also the commander-in-chief, suddenly entered the tent and said anxiously:

“Please, all of you, get on your horses quickly. The situation is not good!”

“What’s the matter? Why are you so panicked? Tell me quickly!”

“I don’t know why, but when the various camps learned that the grain route was cut off, the soldiers all clamored to leave. The generals couldn’t suppress them and were being carried away by the rioting soldiers. Now all the camps are in panic, and the situation is on the verge of collapse. The situation is extremely critical. Please, my lord, get on your horse quickly, just in case.”

Zhu Dadian forced himself to be calm, “You go and pass down a strict order immediately. The troops in all camps are not allowed to panic and move around. They must remain calm and guard their respective camps. Anyone who dares to abandon the camp and flee will be executed without mercy!”

“Yes, I obey the order!” Jin Guoqi turned and left.

While Zhu Dadian was anxious, Zu Dashou came galloping with a group of personal guards. He dismounted in front of Zhu Dadian’s tent, hastily cupped his fists in salute, and said loudly:

“Please, my lord, move the camp immediately! The rebels have already rushed out of the city. Please, my lord, leave quickly!”

“The rebels are already fish in a pot. There’s no need to worry.” Before he could finish his words, he heard the sound of cannons rumbling from the city. In these days, the rebels in the city rarely fired their cannons, but at this time, they suddenly started firing intensively. Cannonballs whistled towards the camp, further increasing the chaos in the camp.

Zhu Dadian was about to speak when he suddenly heard the sound of war drums, horns, and conch shells from the enemy camp. Then, there was the sound of thousands of horses galloping and shouting. Everyone could hear that the rebels in Dengzhou City had come out in full force and were charging towards the camp. Zu Dashou urged, “Please, my lord, move the camp quickly and make another plan.”

The day after Kong Youde’s surprise attack succeeded, Li Jiucheng received a verbal message from a secret envoy sent by Lord Lu in the city that the surprise attack had succeeded. He was originally skeptical and had not taken any action. However, he had ordered his generals to prepare their troops and horses to fight out of the city at any time.

On this day, he suddenly received a report that the government army’s camp was in a mess, with people shouting and horses neighing. He knew that something must have happened in the camp—most likely the news that the grain route had been cut off had reached the camp. Li Jiucheng himself was an old general of Liaodong and was very familiar with the style of the Guanning army. He knew that this must be the Guanning generals running for their lives in a critical situation. He sneered, “Heaven is really helping me!” He immediately ordered the whole city to beat the drums and fire the cannons, and also sent many personal guards to shout all over the city, “The government army’s grain route has been cut off!”

Then he put on his full armor and personally led a part of the elite as the vanguard, leading 30,000 infantry and cavalry to attack the camp, hoping to rout the main force of the Shandong field camp while it was in chaos.

At this time, the most powerful Guanning camps in the field camp had already begun to flee. The remaining troops from Sichuan, Hebei, and Shandong also fled. For a time, all the camps were in chaos, and they scrambled to flee. Zhu Dadian, Xie Sanbin, and others were held hostage and helped onto their horses, and they all galloped away.

It was after a snowstorm, and the weather was cold and freezing. Most of the Guanning troops were cavalry and had already fled first. The other towns were mostly infantry, and it was almost impossible for them to walk in the snow. They were caught up by the rebels and were immediately scattered like birds and beasts, without any resistance. The rout and pursuit continued into the night. Many government soldiers were killed or captured, and countless were scattered in the chaos.

Zhu Dadian and others were almost caught up by the rebels during their escape. They had thought of committing suicide several times. In the most critical time, all his personal guards were scattered. Fortunately, at this time, a cavalry flying the flag of Qimu Island suddenly appeared. A volley of muskets was fired, and the rebels were repulsed, and they were rescued.

Zhu Dadian was still in shock. He saw that the other party had only a little more than a hundred people, and the leader was just a young officer. He was wearing a thick felt Fanyang cap, a long cotton robe, and a cloth belt around his chest and waist. The hundred cavalry around him were all dressed the same, with muskets slung over their shoulders and sabers at their waists. Although they were not wearing armor, they looked heroic and very brave.

“I, Huang Ande, pay my respects to you, my lord!” Hearing that the one who was rescued was the governor of Shandong, the man immediately dismounted, came to Zhu Dadian’s horse, and kowtowed in salute. “You are all frightened, my lords!”

“It’s nothing,” Zhu Dadian heard that the other party had a Shandong accent and was immediately relieved. He forced himself to be calm. “Thank you for your help, brave man!”

“Please rest assured, my lord. Lord Sun has already personally led General Zhang to meet you in front. We will escort you, Lord Zhu, there!”