Zheng Xin was the eldest brother and naturally the leader among the three. After a brief discussion with the other two, he issued three orders - first, send someone immediately to report the battle situation here to his father, Emperor Zheng Rong, who was in Jinling City; second, gather the troops together, set up camp on the spot, stabilize the situation first and prevent accidents; third, immediately contact the defenders in Wenzhou City, wait for an opportunity to break out of the city, and completely annihilate the Lingnan Army with internal and external cooperation.
Although these measures were not particularly impressive, they were foolproof and safe. Zheng Sen and Zhang Long had no reason to object, so they made corresponding arrangements.
Needless to say, the first two points were successful, but the contact with the defenders in Wenzhou was particularly smooth. It turned out that the Lingnan Army had suffered a series of setbacks and had lost the ability and will to fully control the battlefield situation. They only cared about ensuring that their camp was not harassed, leaving Wenzhou City without any surveillance or control.
The spies sent by Zheng Xin sneaked into the city easily, and after obtaining the news, they easily came out of the city; then they took Zheng Xin's hand order and sneaked into the city easily, agreed on the time, direction and scale of the general attack, and returned to the camp easily again.
In this way, Zheng Yu of the Lingnan Army was doomed to failure.
Zheng Yu himself also smelled the scent of failure. He did not sleep well the whole night. At dawn the next day, he assembled his troops and wanted to move westward to Quzhou according to the original plan.
Unexpectedly, the government troops got up earlier than them, waiting for the Lingnan Army to abandon their camp and lose their guards, so that they could completely annihilate them in one fell swoop.
When Zheng Yu saw the government troops in front of him ready for battle, he suddenly panicked - he also understood that the government troops had guessed his movements and were about to block him in front, but he could not retreat back to the camp and wait for death - he was already in a dilemma with no way out.
Zheng Yu, who had no one to discuss with, was in such a predicament, and only wanted to inspire the morale of his soldiers, and then rely on his courage to break through the government army's defense line and fight his way out. Therefore, he took out all the gold and silver treasures that he had looted in Jiangnan and was going to take to Lingnan to make a comeback, and distributed them to the soldiers of the army, and then waved the flag to command the whole army to charge.
However, this move actually had the opposite effect. Each of the soldiers received treasures worth dozens of taels of silver. They only wanted to survive this almost inevitable battle so that they could enjoy the huge sum of money they had just obtained. They no longer wanted to fight hard.
The soldiers symbolically advanced a few steps forward and then stopped, as if observing the actions of the enemy in front.
Zheng Xin, Zheng Sen, Zhang Long and others who were leading the army in the front were experienced in commanding troops. They were originally afraid that the enemy would fight back in difficult situations and lose the battle inexplicably. But now they saw that the Lingnan army was hesitant and hesitated, without any fighting spirit at all.
Although they did not know the reason, they only knew that such a good opportunity must not be easily missed, but also could not underestimate the enemy and advance rashly. So they discussed letting Zheng Sen lead the elite cavalry to test it first - if it succeeded, the whole army would attack; if not, they could also rely on the excellent mobility of the cavalry to quickly withdraw from the battle.
Since the death of the Left General Cui Nan at the hands of Lingnan King Zheng Gui, no general in the world could match the Second Prince Zheng Sen in terms of assault capabilities. He was seen wearing heavy armor, riding a warhorse that was more than a foot taller than an ordinary horse and also wearing heavy armor, holding a long halberd, and charging into the Lingnan army.
Behind him were the cavalrymen who had come all the way south from Youyan Road. These cavalrymen had been fighting on the northern grasslands for a long time, and their battles with the Turkic and other northern nomadic peoples had never stopped. Today, they finally arrived on the Jiangnan Plain. There was no rival in front of them. The dust raised by the horses' hooves rose behind them, and in front of them was the Lingnan Army, which was full of panic, and followed the commander Zheng Sen to charge forward without hesitation.
Although the Lingnan Army was also experienced in battle, their opponents were the elusive Lingnan barbarians. They had never encountered such a frontal charge of group heavy cavalry. They were cowardly before they even came into contact with the enemy. For a moment, they could not even maintain their formation and began to slowly retreat.
This moment of slackness made the already uneven combat power even more disparate. The heavy cavalry led by Zheng Sen rushed towards the Lingnan Army like a huge wave, instantly smashing their defense line. With the remaining power of the first encounter, Zheng Sen continued to advance and rushed to the core of the Lingnan Army formation.
Zheng Xin, who was observing the movements ahead from behind, was both happy and worried when he saw that his second brother had won the first battle - he was happy that the enemy was beaten so badly by Zheng Sen that he had no chance to fight back, and it seemed that he was not luring the enemy deep into the enemy's territory; he was worried that if the Lingnan army was defeated by Zheng Sen with only a small group of cavalry, he would have nothing to gain.
So without even consulting Zhang Long beside him, he gave the order on his own - the entire army was divided into three teams, which were to charge towards the enemy from the left, middle and right directions respectively; he then sent a message to the defenders in Wenzhou City, asking them to leave the city immediately to intercept the Lingnan Army from behind, and strive to surround the entire Lingnan Army so that no one could escape.
Zheng Yu's side had no way to respond and could only passively take the beating. After only two hours of fighting, the 50,000-strong Lingnan Army was surrounded by the imperial army and was divided into two parts by Zheng Sen's elite heavy cavalry, unable to take care of both sides.
Seeing that the overall situation was settled, Zheng Xin, who was temporarily serving as the commander-in-chief, took the opportunity to curry favor with the enemy and ordered a hundred or so cavalrymen under his command to hold large flags with his name written on them and gallop repeatedly in front of the enemy's formation.
As they galloped on their horses, they shouted loudly: "Those who surrender will be forgiven for their past deeds, and those who resist will be destroyed together with us! Those who surrender will be forgiven for their past deeds, and those who resist will be destroyed together with us! Those who surrender will be forgiven for their past deeds, and those who resist will be destroyed together with us!"
After shouting like this for two cups of tea, the morale of the Lingnan army finally collapsed. Gradually, the soldiers gathered into a team of two or three hundred people, waving white flags, holding high their weapons, and surrendering to the government army.
The government troops certainly did not make things difficult for them. After disarming them, they were sent to the rear of the battlefield and guarded by special personnel. Seeing that their comrades were being treated to an acceptable standard, the other Lingnan soldiers followed suit and surrendered.
In the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of Lingnan troops were killed or surrendered, leaving only a few thousand people still holding steel knives, confronting the huge government army, and their faces showed obvious panic and despair.
Zheng Xin, who had already secured victory, was feeling proud. He rode his horse around the remnants of the Lingnan Army. Suddenly, he saw a man in the enemy crowd who was neatly and gorgeously dressed, tall and fat, and stood out among the defeated soldiers.
Although Zheng Xin had never seen Zheng Yu in person, he learned from the battle reports collected from all sides that Zheng Yu was a fat man. Now in the Lingnan Army, except for the man in front of him, there was no one else as fat as him, so he must have been Zheng Yu without a doubt.
So Zheng Xin shouted loudly: "Hey! Is that person in front Zheng Yu? Come out and talk to me!"
When the fat man Zheng Yu heard the shout, he was startled and panicked. At first he wanted to deny it, but then he thought, who among the tens of thousands of soldiers in the army doesn't know him, the second son of the King of Lingnan? So he had to pluck up his courage and said, "I am Zheng Yu. I wonder what you have to say, big brother?"
Zheng Xin and Zheng Yu are cousins, which means they are the closest relatives besides brothers in common folk. Therefore, it is not strange for Zheng Yu to call Zheng Xin "big brother".
But Zheng Xin didn't like these words. You are a defeated general, how can you call me your brother? So he said in a stern voice, "Who is your elder brother? Your elder brother is Zheng Nuo, the eldest son of the King of Lingnan. He is currently being held in custody by the imperial court. If you want to see him, come with me and I can arrange it."
Zheng Yu felt a chill run down his spine when he heard this. He looked at the thousands of panicked soldiers under his command, who were surrounded by tens of thousands of imperial troops. He knew that he was in a situation where he couldn't escape even if he had wings. It would be an extremely luxurious thing for him to be able to save his life on the battlefield.
However, from being the second son of the King of Lingnan, who dominated the region, to being a prisoner, this rapid fall in status was something Zheng Yu could not accept. He gritted his teeth and said, "Okay. Your Highness, the eldest prince's words are indeed beautiful. But I, Zheng Yu, am not a coward. If Your Highness wants to capture me as a prisoner, I'm afraid it won't be that easy!" He suddenly remembered that there were thousands of soldiers around him, so he shouted loudly, "If you want to capture me, ask my brothers first if they agree or not!"
Zheng Yu originally thought that when he asked such a question, his soldiers would shout "No!" in unison. However, he did not expect that the soldiers around him just looked at each other and whispered to each other, and no one spoke loudly.
Zheng Yu couldn't help but feel a little chilled. He looked up at Zheng Xin, only to see an obvious expression of contempt on his face: "Zheng Yu, stop bluffing and surrender quickly. If you still want to resist, look over here!"
As he spoke, Zheng Xin pointed behind him - in the direction of his finger, thousands of archers had drawn their bows and arrows, aiming directly at Zheng Yu. With just a word from Zheng Xin, they would be able to shoot Zheng Yu into a fat hedgehog.
Seeing this, Zheng Yu sighed, "Alas! The victors are the kings and the losers are the bandits, that's natural. But I am still a descendant of the Zheng family after all. If I surrender, can I save my life and leave some dignity for the royal family?"
Hearing this, Zheng Xin sneered and replied, "Zheng Yu, don't you understand the current situation? Even if you don't surrender, can you still escape death? What you said just now makes sense. After all, you are a member of the Zheng family. Your status is here. Your life and death still depends on the decision of my father. No one else can interfere. Well, I advise you to surrender quickly. Otherwise, if you force me to use force, that would be disrespectful to the royal family!"
The news that Zheng Yu had surrendered and the main force of the Lingnan Army had been completely wiped out spread like wildfire to every corner of the Han Empire. When the wise men in the court and the public heard the news, they were all excited.
The struggle for succession that had been brewing in the imperial court since the late years of Emperor Shenzong finally ended with Zheng Rong's complete victory. Now, in the Han Dynasty, in the court, and in the world, there are no longer any unstable factors that can shake the country. A new era of peace and prosperity is just around the corner!
However, the city of Jinling where the emperor is currently located is extremely peaceful. The already very quiet "Qingya Temple" seems to be even more peaceful and tranquil than before, as if it has not been affected by the stormy waves of the outside world at all.
In the eyes of Emperor Zheng Rong, ever since the capture of Lingnan King Zheng Gui, his disappointing son Zheng Yu had no qualifications to compete with him. The Lingnan army was doomed to be defeated, and all subsequent battles were just routine matters.