Chapter 74: The Dragon-Slaying Emperor

The army of religious bandits finally arrived under the east gate. Looking down from the city, it was a sea of ​​people, densely packed. It was estimated that the number was not less than 100,000. Despite the large number of religious bandits, not all of them were strong men, old and weak women.

"There are all children among them. It is estimated that only 30,000 to 40,000 people can really fight. The rest are just filling up the numbers."

Even so, the eunuchs on the top of the city were frightened. How could they cope with so many people? Governor Zhao Yan was calm and composed, and ordered the archers to prepare and load the cannons to meet the opponent's attack at any time.

After all, bandits are bandits. When they come to the city, they have no intention of setting up camp first. Instead, they attack the city head-on. In their eyes, even if they die in battle, they can rise from the ashes. There is nothing to be afraid of. In addition to the past sieges of the city, they are bandits after all.

, all of them were easily captured, and they regarded Jinan as the cities they had encountered in the past.

There is a moat outside Jinan City. The vanguard of the bandits used ladders as a bridge, laid wooden planks, and crossed the river. The troops behind them carried ladders and followed closely. They did not take the soldiers and horses of Jinan City seriously.

Although Governor Zhao has only assembled more than 7,000 defenders, and these troops have little combat effectiveness when fighting on the plains, they are still very confident to defend against some rabble from a high position.

"Rumble..." the cannon sounded.

"Whoosh whoosh..." Feather arrows rained down like raindrops.

In the blink of an eye, the bandits fell to the ground, killing more than twenty people and injuring hundreds.

The religious bandits rushed to the city, and before they could put up the ladder, the rolling wooden barriers, stones, bricks and tiles on the city were smashed down, killing another one immediately. The religious bandits had not received formal training, so naturally they were not familiar with attacking the city.

He was not smart, and he did not even have a strong sense of self-protection. In less than half an hour, hundreds of people died and more than a thousand were injured.

To attack a city, you must at least have the equipment to attack the city, otherwise it is all in vain. Just like Nurhachi's Eight Banners cavalry, they are unwilling to attack the city easily. When the religious bandits occupied other prefectures and counties, they also got some siege troops.

For example, there are archery towers and the like, but Jinan City is much higher than other cities, and the bows and arrows on the city are sharper. Coupled with the cannons used as cover, the little weapons used by the bandits are of no use at all.

In the blink of an eye, after fighting for nearly two hours, it was almost dusk. Only a dozen of the officers and soldiers on the city were injured. Nearly two thousand of the religious bandits below the city had died, and there were countless wounded. The bandits thought they were

When reciting the spell, he was sincere and would be reborn from the ashes, so he was not too afraid, but Xu Hongru, who was directing from behind, felt that he could not continue fighting like this.

He didn't care about the lives of the people. Too many people died, which greatly damaged his strength. What if there were so many casualties under Jinan City, and there would be more cities in the future? I don't think it will be long.

When they arrived in Beijing, everyone was dead. So he ordered his troops to retreat and set up camp temporarily, waiting for reinforcements.

Yu Hongzhi and Zhang Shipei came from Jingzhou and Caozhou respectively. Jingzhou belonged to Beizhili and had to go south to Jinan. Caozhou was in the south of Shandong and had to go north to come. These two were encountered along the way.

There was too much resistance, and wherever they passed, White Lotus believers surrendered one after another with great momentum. They directly attacked any prefecture, city, or county they encountered and went in to plunder. Seven days later, they arrived in Jinan.

Xu Hongru was waiting for reinforcements, as was Governor Zhao in Jinan City. The news that the imperial court had sent Xiong Tingbi to be Shandong's manager and in charge of suppressing bandits had already spread here. He was strengthening his defenses and waiting carefully.

On the other side, Xiong Tingbi led an army of 30,000 troops to attack Shandong. They would pass through Jingzhou along the way. Jingzhou had been occupied by religious bandits. Yu Hongzhi sent a thousand men to garrison here. With their small number of men, how could they stop Master Xiong?

After only one battle, Xiong Tingbi captured Jingzhou lightly. Along the way south, most of the land he passed was occupied by religious bandits, but the defenders were pitifully small. Xiong Tingbi fought in succession until he was still close to Jinan City.

A place hundreds of miles away.

Within half a month, the lost territory was regained, and good news came frequently. How could the emperor be unhappy? He specially appointed Xiong Tingbi as the crown prince's Shaobao, and greatly encouraged him. Mr. Xiong was recommended by Yue Su, and the emperor naturally praised Yue Su very much.

When Xiong Tingbi was about to arrive in Jinan, three groups of religious bandits got together and held an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures. In the end, it was decided that Xu Hongru would lead an army to attack, while Yu Hongzhi and Zhang Shipei would lead an army to besiege Jinan and provide reinforcements at any time.

Xu Hongru left the old, young, women and children behind and led 50,000 men to go north to stop the attack. Xiong Tingbi sent out scouts early to inquire. After hearing the news, he set up a battle formation at a place called Liuqigou and waited for the enemy. Two soldiers

A few days later, when the White Lotus Cult bandits came to Liu Qigou, Xiong Tingbi led his troops to meet them. They attacked each other twice and charged directly to kill them.

Xiong Tingbi didn't pay attention to the White Lotus Sect's ragtag group. Apart from a simple pre-battle lecture, he didn't make many arrangements at all. He thought that as long as there was a charge, the sect bandits would definitely flee.

The religious bandits are indeed a mob with extremely low combat effectiveness, but his army is not necessarily that strong. When the officers and soldiers saw the religious bandits wearing civilian clothes and holding uneven weapons, they did not take them seriously before.

After all, we fought several battles with the cult bandits on the road, and they were all defeated in one attack. So they all rushed to charge. However, the cult bandits we encountered today were very ferocious, and they all shouted "Mommy"

"Mommy," and rushed forward desperately.

In terms of combat effectiveness, the officers and soldiers are slightly better than half, but in terms of not being afraid of death, the bandits are much better. The bandits shouting spells are rushing to kill them without their lives. As time goes by, the officers and soldiers can't bear it. Big guys.

When I was a soldier, I usually bullied the common people, not for getting rich, but for peace. This time I encountered so many people who were not afraid of death, how could I fight a war, so I turned around and ran away.

Xiong Tingbi was supervising the battle from behind. The situation in front of him could be said to be evenly matched. He secretly regretted in his heart that he had underestimated the cult bandits. He had known that he should have played some tricks and made some clever plans. I was thinking about this. After the battle was completed during the day, the two armies would be waiting at night.

After withdrawing the troops, carry out a sneak attack.

Unexpectedly, before the evenly matched situation lasted for a while, the officers and soldiers suddenly turned around and ran away. When the front retreated, there was a chaos behind them. The bandits took advantage of the situation and rushed to kill them, killing the officers and soldiers until they fell on their backs and fled in panic.

Xiong Tingbi ordered to stop them and killed several fleeing officers and soldiers. However, they were defeated like a mountain and the whole army was running for their lives. He couldn't suppress them even if he wanted to. In desperation, he had no choice but to turn around and flee.

The bandits were chasing after them, and the officers and soldiers ran forward for their lives. Not to mention that the officers and soldiers were not good at fighting, and they ran away very fast. By dusk, the bandits had been out of sight.

The officers and soldiers were also tired. Seeing that the bandits from behind did not catch up, they all stopped to rest. Only then did Xiong Tingbi have time to gather the generals and check the number of people. This check was not important. It almost made Xiong Jinglue angry to death. There were 30,000 troops and now there were only

20,000 were killed. The other 10,000 were killed and I don’t know how many died, and they fled in all directions.

With no other choice, Lord Xiong rested his troops and led his troops to retreat to the newly recovered Qihe County. Fortunately, Xiong Tingbi was cautious and did not take all the food and grass with him. Half of it was left in Qihe County and sent troops to guard it.

Now he has fled back to Luohuang, writing a memorial to plead guilty, and training his troops at the same time.

Before leaving, Yue Su told him to train his troops, but Master Xiong was so eager to make contributions and wanted to help Jinan as soon as possible that he didn't care about it. Now that he was defeated in the battle, he understood Yue Su's intention. It would be embarrassing if his troops and horses were not trained.

Very useful.

In the days that followed, Xiong Tingbi was training troops in Qihe County. According to his estimate, it would take at least three months for these soldiers to change their appearance. When he was in Liaodong, he was very strict in running the army. Once the old routines were used, those soldiers

The ruffian couldn't bear it, and he quickly became submissive.

The memorial of apology was quickly sent to Beijing. Because Yue Su was there to plead for mercy, the emperor was in a difficult situation. He just ordered Xiong Tingbi to make meritorious service and put down the rebellion as soon as possible.

After the imperial edict came down, Xiong Tingbi became more confident and bold when he saw his own affairs. After training, he began to assemble Shandong soldiers and horses, contacted Yuan Keli, the governor of Dengzhou, and agreed on a time to carry out a large-scale encirclement and suppression of the religious bandits.

Besides, after Xu Hongru defeated Xiong Tingbi, his confidence increased and he led his troops back to Jinan, intending to conquer Jinan City in one fell swoop. However, after returning, the families of those who died in the Liu Qigou Battle expressed their hope that the Holy Master and their relatives would be resurrected from the ashes.

.

Xu Hongru was not ambiguous, and immediately ordered the fire to burn the corpse, and opened the altar to practice. There is really a brainless person. He originally suffered a moderate injury and could recover in a month or two, but I heard that the Holy Spirit

Following the practice of rebirth from the ashes, I wanted to play a little trick and rebirth from the ashes, so as not to suffer pain and recuperate. For this kind of people, Xu Hongru still did the work of persuasion, telling the congregation that if they want to be reborn from the ashes, they must be on behalf of others.

Those who died fighting in the sky, like you with evil thoughts, jumped into the fire and were burned to death. Because of this, the injured did not insist on jumping into the fire pit anymore.

Xu Hongru himself knew that the theory of rebirth from the ashes was a lie. After burning, the corpses would all turn into ashes. How could anyone come forward again? However, he would justify himself and tell the congregation that these

The reason why people are not reborn is because they are not sincere, have wrong thoughts on the battlefield, and do not wholeheartedly follow the religion, so they are not reborn. He also warned the living believers that if they want to be reborn from the ashes,

It must be sincere.

The rebirth of the ashes ceremony ended like a joke, but Xu Hongru processed it in the propaganda, saying that the believers who had distracting thoughts and did not rise from the ashes ultimately died fighting for heaven. But such dead people,

If you are reincarnated, you will be cast into a wealthy family, or even go to heaven and gain eternal life.

After some deception, Xu Hongru once again commanded the followers to attack Jinan. He originally thought that relying on the morale of the Liu Qigou battle, he could easily defeat Jinan. Who would have thought that the fierce fighting lasted for three days and three nights? Thousands of the bandits died, and Jinan City was

Nothing good yet.

Just when Xu Hongru was attacking Jinan Guo, a rebellion broke out in Shanxi. Pingyang Prefecture and Lu'an Prefecture were conquered successively. The leader of the rebels claimed to be the Dragon-Slaying Emperor. The propaganda slogan was that today's disasters are endless, all because of

In a time of "troubled" demonic dragons, heaven sent the Dragon-Slaying Emperor to come down to earth, slay the evil dragon, and change the world.

The Dragon-Slaying Emperor's group was also quite powerful, and they captured Pingyang and Lu'an in a few days. However, judging from their posture, it didn't look like they were going to attack Taiyuan, but instead used this as a basis to attack Chang'an.

Chapter 74: The Dragon-Slaying Emperor
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