Ouyang Xuan's letter to Cao Ergou had only four words, and it was these four words that saved the life of the new vassal in the city. Although Cao Ergou didn't understand why Ouyang Xuan suddenly changed his mind, he recognized that the powerful words "surrender and avoid death" were indeed Ouyang's handwriting, and immediately agreed to surrender. Most of the people in the city were naturally overjoyed, but a few people tried to resist to the end, but their hands and feet were tied up, and their weapons were handed over to the Thunderbolt Army. Some of these people are Chang Yuan's party members, while others have their hands stained with the blood of the people. They know that their crimes will definitely be liquidated. The Perak Army's attitude towards these new auxiliary troops is that they can be exempted from death penalty, but they cannot escape from living punishment.
The reason why Ouyang Xuan changed his mind was not only because of the dissuasion of Li Shuang and Lu Dezhi, but also because he felt vaguely inappropriate after the order to "eliminate all evil" was given. The reason for Li Shuang's objection is that from an economic perspective, although there are currently more than 100,000 people under the rule of the Perak Army, due to the rapid expansion of various undertakings, the labor force is extremely scarce. It's okay for the Mongols to be unruly, but the newly attached soldiers are excellent laborers, and it's best to capture them and send them to the mines for labor. Lu Dezhi's reason is that he has a compassionate heart. He believes that God has the virtue of good life, and he should kill less and more carefully. He also said in his mouth, "Heaven and earth are unkind, and treat all things as stupid dogs", which makes people dumbfounded.
What made Ouyang Xuan finally write a letter to Cao Ergou was Yang Xiucai, who was in charge of prisons and prisons. He also said four words: "Rule the country by law." These four words made Ouyang Xuan suddenly realize that his order to "eliminate all evil" was not only inappropriate, but would even bring great losses to the cause of the Pili Army. Politically speaking, if we blindly kill the surrounded enemies, it will inevitably make the Mongolian army, especially the new auxiliary army, trapped in fighting in future battles, which is not conducive to the use of political means such as differentiation and disintegration; In desperate situations, strong combat effectiveness will be unleashed by the desire to save lives. If the surrender is not accepted, the new annexed army will fight to the death, which will greatly increase the casualties and ammunition consumption of the Perak Army soldiers; from the perspective of the rule of law, although Ouyang Xuan said in the Perak Army Jiuding, but individuals must never override collective decision-making. Although "surrender without killing" was proposed by Ouyang Xuan himself, after discussion and approval by the Military and Political Joint Conference, it was no longer a personal opinion but the basic policy of the Perak Army. As a person in power, you cannot govern based on your personal likes and dislikes, let alone change orders overnight.
Without boats and unable to build a pontoon bridge, the Mongolian troops on the east bank of the river stared at Jiangyuan City's cannon fire but were helpless. They did not even dare to approach the river - they would be shelled if they got close to the river, so they could only send scouts to observe secretly. After Cao Ergou took over Jiangyuan City, he immediately raised the flag in the city. The Mongolian army on the east bank of the river saw the big "Cao" character and knew that the source of the river had been recaptured by the Pili army, so they retreated angrily. There is also summer grain to be harvested in the areas occupied by the Mongolian army. Due to the serious population flight, there is also a serious shortage of labor. Mongols and Semu people disdain labor, so these newly attached soldiers naturally need to go back to harvest summer grain as soon as possible.
Just as the main force of the Mongolian army retreated, the half of the Mongolian centurions that had set fire to the enemy also reached the end of their rope. Under Xia Dagen's suicide attack with two boats, part of the Mongolian cavalry's horses fell into the river and drowned, while part remained on the east bank of the river, leaving only one man and one horse. This can be done with ease before the Perak Army cavalry comes after them. After all, they can shoot arrows from a distance, and they can run away if they can't be beaten. The Pili Army can only defend the city walls and settlement points, but they can't defend the vast wheat fields at all. The mature wheat straw has become dry and crisp under the scorching sun. When ignited by kerosene, it becomes a prairie fire. It burns cracklingly for a while, and the air is filled with the smell of wheat, burnt and smoke.
The Mongolian cavalry set fire and drove away the crowd who came to put out the fire. Many of the crowd were Perak soldiers participating in the harvest. They knew that they could not confront the Mongolian cavalry in this plain area, so they had to retreat far away. Under the organization of the officers, the crowd retreated in an orderly manner to ditches, ponds and other places where horses could not charge, formed defensive formations, and began to establish fire isolation zones to prevent the fire from spreading to distant places. Fortunately, although the wheat fields are dry, the required fire breaks do not need to be too wide because the plants are short. There are also many ditches and ridges between the wheat fields, which also slowed the spread of the fire.
The cavalry of the Perak Army came following the thick smoke. Although the cavalry of these two companies is one man and one horse, due to the harvest from Widow's Cliff, they are all riding strong horses, and the weaker horses have been eliminated and made into mail horses, so the traveling speed is no worse than that of the Mongolian cavalry. After a while, they caught up with the Mongolian cavalry who set the fire. The Mongolian cavalry had no choice but to set fire to the enemy while fleeing north. However, due to the gap in riding skills, the Perak Army cavalry could never catch up with the Mongolian cavalry. On several occasions, they almost lost their target. Near Wuyouyi, more than ten miles north of Chongqing Prefecture, the commander of the Perak Army saw that the Mongolian cavalry was moving erratically, so he divided his troops into two groups to attack the Mongolian cavalry.
The strategy of dividing the troops into two groups and attacking them gradually took effect. When they reached the vicinity of Yongkang County, the Mongolian cavalry had been surrounded. In front of them was Longmen Mountain, on the left and right were the Perak Army cavalry, and behind them was a wide ditch. The only bridge on the ditch was lined with an array of chasing infantry. The first three rows of the array are giant shields, and behind them are dozens of dense rows of spearmen. Seeing that there was no way to go, and the Perak Army cavalry on the left and right were approaching step by step, the leading Mongolian cavalry suddenly drew his sword and killed the cavalry beside him, shouting loudly in blunt Chinese: "Surrender, surrender", and the rest When the Mongolian cavalry saw this, they threw their weapons far away, dismounted and knelt down.
The Mongolian cavalry who led the surrender just now was a Khitan, and the cavalry who was killed was a Mongolian, and his role in the army was like a supervisor. In the past two days, this group of cavalry has been doing evil under his coercion. Now that he is dead, the rest of the Mongolian cavalry dare to surrender. Thirty-one Mongolian cavalrymen surrendered, and they lost more than twenty people during the pursuit. Among these people, some were captured after their horses stepped into ditches and ponds and were injured, some were killed by artillery from forts along the way, and even more were killed by the Perak Army cavalry with firearms. The pursuing Perak Army cavalry did not fight the Mongols on horseback, but chased them close and dismounted, then bombarded them with light cannons. If the Mongolian cavalry rushes close, they will use muskets and grenades instead. Since the number of Mongolian cavalry who set fire was far less than that of the Perak Army after the division of troops, the latter situation only occurred twice, and each time they suffered a head-on attack.
The Jiangyuan Incident caused heavy losses to the Perak Army. Not only were more than 50 civilians killed, but more than 20 soldiers were also lost. In terms of supplies, most of the dozens of hijacked transport ships were destroyed. Jiangyuan City was heavily damaged by the bombardment, and the Shiyu Reclamation Point was reduced to a white field. What is particularly sad is that despite timely rescue, nearly a thousand acres of wheat fields were burned down, and about 200,000 kilograms of grain were lost. This made the people of Jiangyuan grit their teeth whenever Chang Yuan was mentioned. In view of the great public indignation of Chang Yuan and his group, Yang Xiucai was strict in the trial and sentenced all his members to death. The five hundred newly surrendered soldiers who had committed murders were all executed, and the rest were sent to the mines for labor camps. As for the surrendered Mongolian cavalry, they cut off the three fingers of their right hands according to the old method and gave them to Wei and Mao for free, and they sold them to the grasslands north of Songzhou.
