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When Zheng Zhen saw that the situation was not right, he quickly abandoned Thang Long City, which could not be said to be an unwise move.
Jiaozhi cannot be compared with China. During the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty, Yu Qian defended Beijing to the death and fought a decisive battle with Yesen outside the city of Beijing. At that time, the strength of the Ming Dynasty was not inferior to Yesen, but it just suffered a great defeat for a while. After a slight recovery, it still had an overwhelming advantage, so it could do so.
Now that Jiaozhi is facing off against Daqin, with such a huge disparity in strength, defending the capital will definitely be a dead end.
But Zheng Zhen obviously underestimated the impact of evacuating Thang Long Prefecture (Hanoi). As soon as he left the city, the people in the city became chaotic and began to attack the city gates, just wanting to escape from the city.
Zheng Jian, who stayed behind, sent troops to suppress the rebellion, but the soldiers he sent also fled.
Many Zheng army soldiers were dissatisfied with Zheng Jian for running away and leaving them to die. Seeing that the people in the city were in such a mess, they had no heart to defend the city. Once deserters appeared, it was out of control. Zheng Jian tried his best to suppress them, but the more he suppressed them, the more deserters there were. Some people in the city took the opportunity to rob, kill, and set fire. All kinds of things happened one after another.
When Gu Rong's warships arrived at Thang Long Prefecture, they saw an incredible scene: the soldiers and civilians in the city seized the south gate and swarmed out.
Some Zheng troops, led by Zheng Jian himself, were struggling to retake the city gates, frantically hacking and killing deserters and civilians who were rushing out of the city.
The South Gate was already littered with corpses and blood flowing like a river. Seeing the Qin army coming, the situation became even more chaotic. Countless civilians and the Zheng army that came to suppress them crowded together. There were huge crowds of people, pushing and trampling on each other, and screams and cries were heard everywhere.
Gu Rong quickly sent a marine corps to land and rush to the South Gate. Another corps crossed the warship and fired at the East Gate with its broadside. For a while, the sound of gunfire was loud. The air was filled with smoke, and flames flickered in the portholes of the warship. One after another, solid bullets streaked through the sky and hit the East Gate hard. The tower collapsed, and there were bursts of noise. The city gate was blown away by the bullets one after another, and the whole hole was opened.
Thousands of marines landed at the dock on the shore, and rushed to the four gates with rifles in hand. When the defenders in the city saw the fierce artillery fire of the Qin army, they had no intention of defending the city, and they immediately collapsed.
What Zheng Jian said about defending Thang Long City to the death, as long as the people are in the city, they will die if the city is destroyed, is simply a joke.
The cannons obtained from the Dutch were still there on the city wall, but all the soldiers had fled and not a single shot had been fired.
After Gu Rong divided his troops to block the four gates of Thang Long City, he learned that Zheng Xun and the main force had abandoned the city and fled to the southwest towards Tuojiang River, with about 30,000 troops accompanying them.
Gu Rong immediately sent 600 marines to chase southwest, and at the same time sent people to contact Ma Liuliang.
In fact, there was no need for them to contact each other. Ma Liuliang, who was running all the way to Thang Long City, had already learned from the spies deployed by Ye Bu Shou in Thang Long City that Zheng Xun had abandoned the city and fled.
As expected, the navy's grandsons got an advantage. Ma Liuliang cursed a few times and ordered the army to turn around and chase them in the direction of Tuojiang River.
On the flat alluvial plain of the Red River, more than ten thousand Qin troops were running wildly, causing chaos in the streets.
The anxious Ma Liuliang felt that the speed was not fast enough, so he urgently asked the army to collect war horses.
Although his 10,000-man army was all infantry, including the mounts of generals at all levels, and the war horses equipped by scouts and messengers, there were at least more than 300 horses in total.
Ma Liuliang gave all the more than 300 war horses to the deputy general He Jinan, and also gave him thirty rocket launchers and two hundred rocket bombs, and asked He Jinan to chase first.
According to the intelligence obtained by Ye Bu Shou, Zheng's total military force is about 100,000, which is still considerable. Lang Son lost 20,000 and Thang Long Prefecture lost another 20,000, leaving about 60,000. If Zheng Xun is really allowed to retreat into the mountains and disperse these 60,000 troops into the deep mountains and forests to fight guerrilla warfare, it will be very difficult to wipe him out.
He Jinan and Wu Xiaoliu led three hundred cavalrymen and broke away from the main group, galloping all the way. The sound of iron hooves clanged and dust flew on the plain. Three hundred were chasing thirty thousand, and the cavalry were chasing the infantry. One can imagine how quickly the distance between the two sides was closing.
Zheng Zhen, under the protection of an army of 30,000, brought his wives, concubines, children, as well as the Le Lord, Le Dynasty officials and their families. His army was very powerful, and common people kept following him along the way to escape the war, making his team even larger.
Seeing that they were only twenty miles away from leaving the plain and entering the mountains, Zheng Xun secretly breathed a sigh of relief. No matter how powerful the Qin navy was or how many artillery pieces they had, they couldn't possibly sail into the mountains.
Moreover, the fifth son Zheng Jian once led troops to attack the Nguyen family in the south. With him leading an army of 20,000 to defend Thang Long City, even if he could not hold it in the end, he should be able to hold out for three or four days. At least that's what he thought.
However, he was happy too early, not knowing that death was approaching him step by step.
"Report, Your Majesty, something bad has happened, the Qin army is chasing us!"
Suddenly, a messenger came on horseback from the rear to report. Even though Zheng Zhen was over seventy years old and had seen a lot of storms and had great composure, he was still shocked when he heard the news.
"What's going on? How did the Qin army come so quickly? Tell me, how many troops are chasing us?"
"Your Highness, they are cavalrymen. I don't know how many there are."
Upon hearing this, Zheng Xun became furious and cursed the good-for-nothing. On the one hand, he ordered General Li Zhi to lead 10,000 troops to stay behind to cover their retreat, while on the other hand, he ordered the army to speed up and rush towards the mountainous area.
He Jinan and Wu Xiaoliu led more than 300 cavalrymen, with their iron hooves hammering the ground violently, sweeping over with rolling yellow dust. Jiaozhi was short of horses, and most of the Zheng army officers and soldiers had never seen so many cavalrymen. In their eyes, the impact caused by 300 cavalrymen was terrifying. Many of them were already shaking in their legs and their faces turned pale as they looked at the cavalrymen coming at them quickly.
"Spearmen, hold on, hold on. Archers, prepare to fire a volley!" Li Zhi stood in front of the 10,000-strong army, shouting loudly, holding a knife.
However, his efforts were in vain. He Jinan and his men had no intention of engaging with them. The three hundred cavalrymen circled to the right one mile away from Li Zhi's army, flew around his ten thousand blocking troops, and took a shortcut to continue chasing Zheng Zhen's troops.
The billowing dust raised by the war horses was blown by the wind and hit Li Zhi and his men in the face. Seeing the Qin army bypassing them, they could only sigh in despair.
Seeing the Qin army coming around, the rumbling cavalry was so powerful and seemed invincible. How could Zheng Xun dare to be negligent? He quickly sent the only two hundred elephant soldiers to meet the enemy.
When an elephant runs, its speed is not as fast as a war horse, but its momentum is even more astonishing.
"Rockets, ready ten!" He Jinan shouted. The Qin army behind him received the order. Ten riders rushed out and slowed down to meet the oncoming war elephants. As soon as they came into range, ten rockets whizzed away.
When the flames shot from the sky, before they exploded, the war elephants running for the artillery were already frightened. Then, boom! Boom, boom, boom... There were loud noises, and balls of fire exploded. More than ten of the two hundred war elephants were killed or injured, and they fell to the ground with a loud bang, like a mountain collapsing.
The rest of the war elephants were frightened and no longer obeyed the control. They turned around and ran madly, rushing towards Zheng's army. When Wu Xiaoliu saw this, he was overjoyed and shouted, "Chase them, and send a rocket from time to time to drive the war elephants towards Zheng's army..."
boom!
... ... .
boom!
From time to time, a loud noise was heard from behind. The one or two hundred war elephants, constantly frightened, rushed into the Zheng army's battle formation like heavy tanks. In a moment, the Zheng army was overwhelmed and the situation was in chaos.
The pillar-like elephant legs rumbled past, and some of the Zheng army that had no time to escape were knocked away several feet, and some were trampled to pieces. The originally strict army formation, under the impact of the two hundred war elephants, collapsed in all directions like an ant colony being crushed by huge rocks, and screamed like a tide.
"kill!"
He Jinan and his men urged their horses forward and charged in. The rockets on their shoulders burst out from time to time and were fired at crowded places. Balls of fire rose up and Zheng's troops were blasted into the air and scattered.
The continuous explosions intensified the madness of the war elephants and also accelerated the collapse of Zheng's army. Just imagine the tragic scene of tens of thousands of infantry being crushed by two hundred tanks. The picture is simply difficult to describe in words.
He Jinan and his men's target was certainly not the Zheng army that was fleeing all over the mountains and plains. Everyone's eyes had long been locked on Zheng Zhen's flag and carriage. The three hundred cavalrymen rushed towards where Zheng Zhen was like a storm, the sound of their hooves was like thunder, and their murderous aura was devastating.
Zheng Xun had two thousand of his best troops with him. They surrounded his carriage and fled desperately towards the mountainous area. As the Qin army approached, He Jinan shouted again: "Rockets, bomb them!"
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ps: Today is New Year's Eve, the first update is here as usual, I wish you all good health, peace, happiness and contentment! (To be continued...)
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