In accordance with the reward order issued by a certain prince, Hong Chengchou sent a copy to every general above the deputy general level. Liu Guoneng, as the chief military officer, could naturally see it.
Liu Zian was just a guerrilla before and had just been promoted to a general. He had never received such a comprehensive "rebellion price list".
Taking a closer look, it clearly listed the prices of Zhang Xianzhong's senior generals, including the eight kings with the highest value of 150,000 taels of silver, to generals with only 5,000 taels of silver.
The position Luo Dai pointed with his hand happened to be Wang Shangli's name, which corresponded to ten thousand taels of silver. There were two words after the name - can be reduced!
What is quite different from this is that quite a few names are followed by the word "must kill", which shows that the court treats these rebel generals somewhat differently.
In order to completely eliminate the situation of killing good people and taking credit for their merits, a certain prince deliberately replaced the previous reward model for the number of bandits by offering high-priced rewards to enemy generals.
If people from all walks of life in the imperial court want to get a lot of reward money, they must capture or kill enemy generals. It will never work just to kill ordinary minions or use the brains of ordinary people to make up the numbers.
If you want to capture an enemy general, you must first defeat or annihilate all your troops. This will have the effect of getting twice the result with half the effort. This is also a strategy that a certain prince came up with after considering the virtues of the court generals.
After all the main generals of the rogue bandits are captured and killed, only the small and medium-sized bandits are left. No matter how large the number is, they will not be able to fight, and the plan to suppress the bandits will be able to achieve a staged victory.
"This is all the credit of the commander-in-chief. I don't dare to take credit for it!"
Although Liu Zian was very keen on ten thousand taels of silver, he thought about it again. He had fought with Wang Shangli for dozens of rounds, and he finally used a trick to capture this guy. He was obviously taking advantage. This was still half done, even if he was doing it. It can't be justified even when it's a rogue bandit.
"Ah? How could the wise brother be like this? If it weren't for the wise brother's quick eyesight and quick hands, Brother Yu would have been killed by this thief. Furthermore, when he went north to Gucheng, Brother Yu also received reinforcements from the wise brother, so that he could stabilize his position and frighten him. Retreat the traitor army. Now Brother Xian has come to help with two thousand troops and captured this guy. Naturally, you and I will each take half. After the siege of Xiangyang is relieved, Brother Yu reported to Ming Hong Shaobao that it was you and me who worked together. Capturing this thief is actually the same, my dear brother, don’t let your mother-in-law shirk away!"
In full view of the public, Luo Dai would not take the money alone. More importantly, among the five thousand soldiers under his command, Liu Guoneng sent 40% of the troops.
Not only for Liu Zian's face, but also for Liu Guoneng's. His clan brother is the most powerful among all the general soldiers. Taking this opportunity to show his goodwill to him, it will be a matter of course for him to borrow troops in the future.
Liu Guoneng had 28,000 soldiers and horses, which was equivalent to the strength of at least four general soldiers. Even Hong Shaobao took a high look at him. Luo Dai was separated from Zuo Liangyu's command, and he also had some of Liu Zeqing's former subordinates.
The total number is less than 5,000, and there are only 1,000 horsemen. This force is slightly better than Jiang Mingwu. Among the many general soldiers, the strength is almost at the bottom.
It would be great if we could borrow some soldiers and horses from Liu Guoneng, as we did today. Two thousand soldiers may not be too much for Liu Guoneng, but it would be a good time for him.
"Then... I'd rather be respectful than obey my orders!"
Liu Zian also understood that most of the time he shared the credit like this just for the sake of his clan brother, but it was okay, after taking out the money given to his subordinates, he could use part of it to honor his elder brother. Now that he had military exploits, it was nothing. A trip in vain.
Unexpectedly, when he picked up the tip of the knife and cast the net, he would pocket five thousand taels of silver. Liu Zian was really amazed.
Previously, Hong Shaobao said that the imperial court had raised sufficient salary, but many people still didn't believe it. However, as soon as he arrived at the clan brother's camp, he paid up all the arrears and promoted the clan brother to the rank of chief military officer. For this purpose, he specially issued five A reward of one thousand taels of silver.
No one disbelieved it now. Liu Zian also heard that Hong Shaobao had intercepted King Xiang's 600,000 yuan as military pay. Now as long as you have military exploits, especially if you capture the rebel generals, you will be rewarded easily. No special skills will be available. Delinquent.
No matter they are officers or bandits, from generals to soldiers, everyone does not like silver, and everyone works hard for these white items.
In this way, he could receive a reward of five thousand taels of silver. Liu Zian could laugh out of his dreams.
The only people involved in capturing Wang Shangli alive were the people around him, two generals, three or four generals, and less than thirty personal soldiers. The money would not be scattered like seeds, and everyone would get a lot of money.
Liu Zian planned to take out two thousand taels of silver to honor his clan brother. He would keep at most one thousand taels for himself, and the rest would be distributed to meritorious officials in the service.
But the fighting around them was still going on. When Wang Shangli's soldiers saw their master being captured alive, they wanted to come to the rescue. However, because their number was too small, they were quickly repelled by the officers and soldiers.
Since Luo Dai had too many soldiers and horses, and it was a last-ditch battle, the 500 thieves and horsemen who rushed into the battle formation passed by and there were not many left. The remaining ones also lost the idea of continuing to fight to the death and turned their horses to flee. .
Facing the rain of arrows from behind, only twenty or thirty horsemen were able to escape the battle alive in the end. There is no doubt that Wang Shangli's troops were annihilated by Luo Dai along the Han River.
"Boom boom boom..."
However, Wang Dingguo, who led his infantry to block the army's rush to rescue Xiangyang City, did not give up yet. He rushed up with seven or eight hundred infantry, but before he could get close to the enemy's formation, his troops were covered by artillery fire from the warships on the river.
Just now, the two armies were fighting in a melee. It was difficult to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy, and it was difficult to fire artillery. When the rebel infantry charged up, the Xiangfan navy could no longer watch the fun, otherwise it would not be able to explain to Wang Chengzeng, the prefect of Xiangyang, and Wang Ruinan, the military commander when they returned.
Luo Dai has already sent someone to explain the situation to the navy. He is here with only horsemen and no infantry. If there are unidentified infantry approaching the formation without authorization, the navy warship can just fire its cannons. There is no need to Worried about injuring the infantry of the army.
If they were advancing so quickly, Hong Shaobao would not have to mobilize multiple troops and leave them under his command, and would send 5,000 troops to assist Xiangyang first.
"Damn it! Damn the dog officer army!"
Seeing that his infantry were almost a hundred steps away from the shore, but were repelled by the gunfire from the battleships, Wang Dingguo could only feel resentful and gnashed his teeth and cursed the navy on the river.
Infantry fighting horse pawns, there may be a battle.
The infantry and the water divisions not only cannot fight, but also can only be beaten.
Changing hands is possible, but there are two prerequisites.
First, do you have anyone's attack power?
Second, do you have anyone’s defense?
Naval warships have an absolute advantage on both offense and defense. A mere three to four hundred people can send thousands of people on the opposite side into flight.
Even if the three thousand infantry under Wang Dingguo's command were piled up to the shore, it would be of no avail, and the battleships on the river would still be useless.
If infantry and naval warships fight on the beach, it is basically the same as asking for death.
At that time, even though there were tens of thousands of Jin troops with gold and iron horses, they could only do nothing to Han Shizhong's navy on the riverside.
Regarding the cavalry troops of the official army, Wang Dingguo's troops did not have an advantage in strength.
Regarding the naval warships of the official army, Wang Dingguo's troops did not have an advantage in firepower.
There were less than a thousand people who could assemble as quickly as possible and rush to the shore. He didn't want to rush over immediately.
Seeing that Wang Shangli and his cavalry had already charged into the formation, Wang Dingguo knew that his troops would not be able to do anything without charging, otherwise the eight kings would be very angry when they returned.
However, there was a fatal mistake in the cooperation between the two. The cavalry and infantry were as far as one mile apart, and they were completely out of touch when charging into the formation. After the cavalry died in the battle, the infantry came forward, which was just like the tactic of adding fuel to the fire.
Wang Dingguo had nothing to do about this. The reason was that facing such a wide defensive zone, it was very difficult to defend it with one thousand horsemen and three thousand infantry.
If we add twice as many troops as this, we may still be able to hold on. Otherwise, even if the resourceful second general Zhang Dingguo is placed in command, he will probably be unable to do anything.
Wang Dingguo didn't want to take on this unlucky job. If the Hong bandit army went south, his troops would definitely be the first to suffer. But who would let the army and navy discover the secret trip to Fancheng?
Since we couldn't get to Fancheng, we had to stick to the south bank, guard the gate for the troops responsible for attacking the city, and wait until dark before trying our luck in the water.
The Eight Kings did not want to attack Xiangyang City, which was high in the city and deep in the pond. However, Wang Shangli who had sneaked into the city was discovered by the defenders. Liu Jinzhong, who attacked at night, died in the city, and the fourth general Zhang Nengqi was injured as a result.
Since sneak attacks are not possible, the rebels can only launch a frontal attack on the city. They hope to break the city as soon as possible. Wang Dingguo kept praying in his heart. His line of defense has been broken by the official army.
Facing the naval warship's artillery fire, Wang Dingguo's infantry troops could not organize an effective attack at all. Every time the rebel soldiers got close to them, they were beaten by bullets and fled.
After repeating this cycle three or four times, no one dared to step forward anymore when they saw the corpses of no less than two to three hundred companions lying strewn on the grass near the shore, with many wounded soldiers shouting and crawling among them.
Those who were killed by bullets were lucky, but many of them were missing arms and legs, and people who were cut open and vomited blood could be seen everywhere. It was a tragedy.
This kind of situation makes all the able-bodied guys feel frightened after seeing it, and they will end up in the same end in the past. Therefore, no matter how much they scold the boss, no one is willing to continue to fight.
The difficulty is obvious. It seems that after overcoming the firing range of the Navy fighter jets, and then facing the arrow rain of thousands of officers, soldiers and horsemen, how many people can survive in the end?
What idiot wants to run half a mile and then be chopped up by the sword of the army?
Wang Dingguo found that all his officers and soldiers had been bombarded to the point of fear of the enemy, and it was unlikely that they would succeed if they tried to attack again.
Their strength is not superior. Even if they can rush over occasionally, they will not be able to defeat the officers and soldiers on the opposite side. They will die in vain.
Moreover, we learned from the horse soldiers who luckily escaped that Wang Shangli had been captured for the second time, and he had to report this matter to the Eight Great Kings immediately.
Wang Dingguo would not dare to let these horse soldiers rush to the city.
But Wang Dingguo couldn't do it to stop the soldiers.
With more than 3,000 infantrymen under his command, no fewer than 200 were killed in the battle, and nearly a thousand were injured. Their morale was low and their fighting spirit was completely gone. How could we fight this battle?
If there is still a chance to turn defeat into victory, you can also put all your chips in and bet to the death.
However, this small amount of troops now cannot defeat the "land and water integrated defense formation" of the navy and cavalry on the opposite side.
It's hard to say how others will direct the situation. Anyway, Wang Dingguo can't see any hope of making a comeback for the time being.
Under the close protection of the navy, Luo Dai, who had already learned about the siege situation, asked his troops to quickly pass through this relatively dangerous narrow area and reach the foot of Xiangyang City as soon as possible.
He sent Liu Zian to send the captured Wang Shangli and the injured soldiers into the city. He led the main force to rush from the west of the city along the river to the north of the city to repel the bandits here first.
Liu Zian arrived at the moat with hundreds of riders. General Mingya brought Luo Dai's seal to the city gate. After the defenders recognized it clearly, they entered the city smoothly.
"Prefect, Liu Zian, the last general, has escorted the thief Wang Shangli into the city on the order of the commander-in-chief Luo Dai. We hope that the wounded soldiers under his command will receive timely treatment!"
Liu Zian had met Wang Chengzeng, the prefect of Xiangyang, so he would not admit the wrong person, especially since Wang Shangli, a gift package worth ten thousand taels, had to be handed over to the other party in person to sign for it.
"Okay, okay! I wonder how many reinforcements your army has come to support? Did Hong Shaobao's army go south together?"
When Wang Cheng saw the reinforcements arriving, he felt reassured. With the support of the reinforcements, he could stabilize the morale of the army.
"Informing the prefect, the five thousand cavalry of the General Army are taking the lead. Hong Shaobao has led tens of thousands of troops southward and will arrive soon! I wonder how the rebel army is attacking the city? Why did the general not see the siege troops in both the west and north of the city? shape?"
Liu Zian didn't understand that except for the enemies who went to the shore to intercept his troops, he didn't see a single bandit on the way here, but here in Xiangyang City there was the roar of artillery, which puzzled him.
"General Liu didn't know something. The rebels mainly attacked the east and south of the city, but they did not launch attacks on the two outer and outer walls. The previous attack was very fierce. Fortunately, our army was united and shared the same hatred of the enemy, so we were able to repel them."
Yang Shien, deputy general of Xiangyang, was the defender here and personally directed the battle to defend the city, so he explained to the prefect Wang Chengzeng.
"I see, then the general won't bother you anymore. I will give the receipt to Mr. Luo and then hunt down the remaining enemies!"
When Liu Zian went to the city this time, after sending Wang Shangli here, he wanted to get a receipt jointly signed by the prefect Wang Chengzeng and the guard Yang Shien. He also had to put fingerprints on the name, including Wang Shangli's fingerprint, so that it would be effective.
It is about the ownership of ten thousand taels of silver, and of course there is no room for sloppiness. This is also one of the many regulations issued by the prince that Hong Shaobao announced before. Only by matching the signature and fingerprint can we avoid mistakes and imitation by people with ulterior motives.
Liu Zian was naturally overjoyed when he got the receipt. This piece of paper was equivalent to a banknote worth ten thousand taels of silver. Luo Dai could exchange it for the specified amount of silver reward by taking the report to Hong Shaobao.
"It's you again? Haha! You're fine~!"
Yang Shien grabbed the prisoner's head, turned around and couldn't help but chuckle. He turned out to be an old acquaintance. He didn't expect to become a prisoner of the army for the second time. What a trick of fate!
"If you want to kill or cut into pieces, it's up to you. Grandpa will never be greedy for life or afraid of death!"
Wang Shangli was very stubborn. If he fell into the hands of the army, he didn't expect a good end for himself. There was nothing he could do about it.
The first time he was captured was because he sneaked into the city but was discovered by the defenders. The second time he was captured was because he was tricked by Liu Zian's fellow.
Wang Shangli didn't know if the Eight Kings would trade the prisoners on hand in exchange for their own lives.
If the rebels don't have the dog officer as a bargaining chip, then they will most likely die in this city.
He was not greedy for life and feared death, he just felt that being captured twice in a row was too cowardly.
