Unexpectedly, before King Zheng Rong of Lingnan even set foot on the land of Jiangnan, he had already heard the news that the army besieging Shanyin County had failed, and Zheng Yu and veteran general Sun Hao were fighting a decisive battle with Qiu Yi's troops under the city of Jinling.
Lingnan King Zheng Gui knew something about Qiu Yizhi's ability; he also knew the ability and character of his second son Zheng Yu. So when he heard the news, he immediately guessed that Zheng Yu would have a hard time winning this battle, so he galloped towards Jinling.
However, when Zheng Gui arrived at the battlefield, the Lingnan Army had already fallen into the enemy's trap of fire attack. He only saw the old general Sun Hao frantically cleaning up the remaining soldiers beside the blazing fire, while his second son Zheng Yu had been captured by Qiu Yizi.
Zheng Gui was furious, and without caring whether his soldiers were tired or demoralized, he immediately used his Lingnan King's seal to gather more than 40,000 defeated soldiers and challenged Qiu Yizi again.
When the soldiers from Lingnan saw that it was the Prince of Lingnan who had arrived, they were all surprised and delighted, cheering, and immediately gathered under Zheng Gui's banner, picked up their remaining armor and weapons, boosted their morale, and advanced towards Qiu Yizi, wanting to avenge their previous defeat.
The reasons behind this were not something Qiu Yizi, who stayed in a corner of Jiangnan and only had Jinling City in his eyes, could understand. No wonder he was so surprised at the arrival of the King of Lingnan.
The King of Lingnan was actually no less surprised than Qiu Yizi.
What surprised him was that he had deployed so many elite troops in Jiangnan, but within a few months, not only did he fail to control the situation in Jiangnan, but was defeated by Qiu Yizi to the point that only 40,000 elite troops were left, and the second prince Zheng Yu, who was in charge of the army, was captured alive by the enemy. All this was achieved when Qiu Yizi only relied on the strength of the local military forces in Jiangnan, without any reinforcements from the court.
So Lingnan King Zheng Gui stroked his slightly graying beard and said, "My dear nephew, your martial arts are so prolific that you have defeated more than 100,000 of my elite soldiers by yourself. Such a feat is unprecedented in history. Of course, I have to come and see it."
"Take a look? That's an easy thing to say. But you, the Prince of Lingnan, have come here from afar, you can't just take a look and leave, right? It's not necessarily that I have to treat you a bowl of tea and a meal, right? You are clearly here to challenge me!" Qiu Yizi thought to himself.
Under normal circumstances, he would have blurted out these harsh words, but when he thought about the fact that the King of Lingnan was a famous general who was no less famous than any other general in the world; when he thought about the fact that the 40,000 troops under the King of Lingnan were still twice as many as his own; when he thought about the fact that his so-called victorious troops, except for some elite troops, were no better at fighting than the defeated soldiers of the King of Lingnan...
Qiu Yizhi immediately retracted the words he had just thought about, and bowed to Lingnan King Zheng Gui, saying, "This is just a lucky break for me, how can I deserve your praise, Your Majesty?"
Zheng Gui waved his hand and said, "When I was young, my achievements were not even half of yours, but my arrogance was several times greater than yours. After your great victory, you can still maintain such a state of mind... This is really because of my royal brother's good education! It seems that I am far inferior to my royal brother in this regard. Take my disappointing son Zheng Yu for example. So many elite soldiers were killed by him. That's fine, but he himself was captured by the enemy. It's really embarrassing for me!"
Qiu Yizhi listened while racking his brains to think about the meaning of Zheng Gui's words, but he immediately made it clear: "It is this useless son of mine. Can you return him to me for the sake of my having spared you twice before, so that I won't have a lonely son?"
Qiu Yizhi was stunned when he heard this, and secretly speculated: "It is true that the King of Lingnan has let me go twice, and this kindness is indeed difficult to repay except by letting Zheng Yu go. I have also let Zheng Yu go once before. But now is different. When I let Zheng Yu go, I was confident that I could capture him alive again. However, now the King of Lingnan has arrived and taken over the army. If I let Zheng Yu go again, it will be very difficult to capture him again."
So Qiu Yizi hurriedly discussed with Lin Shuhan beside him, and then he bowed and said, "Your Highness probably doesn't know yet, I let the Second Prince Zheng Yu go once before, thinking that he would repent. Even if I couldn't persuade Your Highness to do good, at least he wouldn't be an enemy of the court again. But I didn't expect that after the Second Prince returned to the camp, he fought with me again. I had to capture the Second Prince again for my own protection and to serve the Emperor."
Although he didn't say much, he felt dry in the mouth. He swallowed hard to moisten his slightly dry throat before he continued, "Your Highness, please forgive me for being rude. I'll give you a piece of advice here - you can't defeat the emperor. Fortunately, you still regard yourself as a prince and call yourself a descendant of the Han Dynasty. If you are interested, I would like to join my brothers and Prime Minister Zhongli as guarantors, and use the second prince Zheng Yu as a hostage. I would like to trouble you to write a letter of apology. I believe that the emperor will also consider our brotherhood and give you a good end."
Hearing this, Zheng Gui sneered, "I'm afraid that my nephew has such good intentions, but my brother doesn't have such kindness. As long as a person ascends the throne, what can't he do?" He suddenly smiled to himself, "If I were the emperor, and someone like my nephew fell into my hands, I would use him if I can, and get rid of him if I can't. I would never let a tiger go back to the mountain!"
As soon as Zheng Gui uttered these outrageous words, even Qiu Yizi, the most daring and presumptuous person in the world, did not dare to respond.
At this time, "Black-necked Toad" and others escorted Zheng Yu, who was tied up tightly, to the front line.
When Zheng Gui saw this, his face darkened and he cursed, "You rebellious son, what did I tell you in the beginning? I told you to be cautious, to defend first and then attack, and to listen to the advice of the veteran generals. Which of these did you do? You still want me to plead for you with my old face. You really make me lose face!"
The little bit of self-esteem that Zheng Yu had left was completely stripped away by his father's ruthless lectures. His originally obese body became hunched over and shrunken like a deflated ball.
Seeing the state of his father and son, Qiu Yizhi felt a little embarrassed and said hurriedly, "Your Majesty, please calm down and don't get yourself hurt by anger..."
Zheng Gui's expression improved a little, and he changed the subject, saying, "I never disappoint others. My nephew wants to be a loyal minister and filial son to my brother, and I will not force him. How about this, you promise me that you will not harm Zheng Yu privately, which is also a small wish of mine."
Upon hearing this, Qiu Yizi thought: I don't have the power to deal with Zheng Yu anyway, so I might as well agree to it. At least I can save face in front of the King of Lingnan.
So he bowed and replied: "Of course, as the saying goes, 'Do not punish a doctor'. How the second prince Zheng Yu should be dealt with is up to the emperor to decide. How can I, Qiu Yizi, a small seventh-rank county magistrate, deal with him?"
"Well! My dear nephew is indeed a quick-witted person. Thank you in advance!" As he said that, Zheng Gui bowed to Qiu Yizi on his horse.
Qiu Yizi hurriedly returned the greeting and was about to say something humble when he heard Zheng Gui say, "Since you have said this, I am relieved. I would rather retreat three hundred steps and wait for you to successfully form your battle array before engaging you in close combat."
Qiu Yizi was shocked when he heard this: Does this mean that he wants to fight with me now
He was about to ask for confirmation, but he saw Zheng Gui had returned to the formation surrounded by ceremonial guards, and the Lingnan Army's formation also began to retreat slowly and orderly, leaving him no time to discuss anything.
Qiu Yizhi was just surprised when he heard Lin Shuhan beside him remind him, "Sir, why are you still standing there? The King of Lingnan is coming to attack, why don't you quickly line up to fight? Going back to the camp and defending will only lead to death!"
Qiu Yizhi finally reacted and replied, "Mr. Lin, look at these tired soldiers around me. How can they defeat the Prince of Lingnan?"
Lin Shuhan shook his head: "It's better to be prepared than not, right? Fortunately, the King of Lingnan gave us a buffer of 300 steps. Why not follow the previous strategy and concentrate the elite troops to see if there is a chance to directly attack the King of Lingnan in the melee. Maybe there is still a chance of victory."
This may be the only way to win.
Qiu Yizi hurriedly passed down the order to divide the 20,000 troops into three formations - the left wing with 7,000 troops commanded by Zhang Qi, the right wing with 7,000 troops commanded by Wu Changxi, and the center with 6,000 troops commanded by Zhao Chengxiao and himself. Seventeen personal soldiers and two hundred elite soldiers followed closely by him, ready to attack the enemy chief at any time.
Just when the preparations here were beginning to show some signs of progress, they heard the sound of war drums from the Lingnan army opposite. Lingnan King Zheng Gui did not play any tricks and directly ordered his 40,000 troops to launch a full-scale attack on the government army.
Qiu Yizi didn't expect that King Zheng Gui of Lingnan didn't give him any chance to breathe. The army pressed forward quickly and fiercely. In a blink of an eye, they were only a hundred steps away from him, leaving him no time to use any conspiracy or trickery.
In desperation, Qiu Yizi could only wave his command flag and order the entire army to advance and engage in close combat with the enemy. However, his elite troops remained on standby, hoping that the enemy would be in temporary chaos and reveal a flaw so that he could surprise the main general and succeed in one fell swoop.
What he didn't expect was that under Zheng Gui's command, the morale, fighting spirit and combat effectiveness of the Lingnan army were completely different from usual. It seemed like a completely different army. It was as if the tired soldiers who had just been defeated had turned into a fresh force in the blink of an eye, and they had an absolutely overwhelming advantage over the government army as soon as they came into contact.
Qiu Yizi also grew up in the army. Although he was young, he had experienced many wars. He immediately sensed the rapid change in the situation on the battlefield. Just as he was about to give the order to change the formation, he heard a terrified shout from the front:
“Ghost…Ghost…Ghost is coming!”
"Oh no! The ghost is coming!"
After Qiu Yizi heard this, only four words came to his mind: "incomprehensible": As the saying goes, "Ghosts are not to be spoken of; outside of the flesh, they exist but are not discussed." There are no ghosts in this world, and even if there are, they would not appear in broad daylight, in full view of everyone; nor would they appear on a battlefield filled with such heavy murderous aura; nor would they appear among tens of thousands of passionate men fighting in a bloody battle.
Therefore, at this critical moment, Qiu Yizhi even issued a special order: "Do not spread rumors to confuse the people and shake the morale of the army. Those who disobey the order will be executed!"
But when his military orders were passed down, the chaos did not improve at all. The formation of his troops became increasingly loose, and their fighting spirit became increasingly weak. The soldiers standing in the front row wanted to retreat involuntarily, and those standing in the back row did not have the courage to move forward.
At this time, the Lingnan army suddenly heard the sound of drums and gongs, and the shouts of killing, and the offensive instantly intensified. Facing such an offensive, the government troops were obviously unable to resist and retreated step by step.