Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 237 8 wins and 8 losses

After the military meeting, Meng Jun strictly ordered the scouts to investigate whether Jin Shengheng's main force was marching along Jing County. As soon as the military order was issued, Zhang Chengsheng was under tremendous pressure. Jin Shengheng, that bastard, forcibly conscripted men everywhere, causing people to be everywhere. This made it much more difficult for his scouts to estimate the number of people.

Helplessly, he could only accept the military order and return to his tent. Zhang Chengsheng summoned all his scout officers and ordered them to send out their scouts, either to capture alive or to climb high to spy on the enemy. No matter what they did, Zhang Chengsheng had only one request, which was to know whether Jin Shengheng's main force was marching along Jing County.

Upon hearing this, the scout officers all looked solemn, and then they all took the order and left.

In Jing County.

Jin Shengheng's reputation for forcibly conscripting men, plundering money and grain, and levying heavy taxes had already spread throughout Jiangnan. The gentry and common people all called him the Jin thief, rather than the Duke of Changguo who was conferred upon him by the Yongli court.

When the people of Jing County heard that the Jin thieves were coming, they had already fled the city in fear and hid in the nearby mountains and forests. When Jin Shengheng led the army to Jing County for dozens of miles, he received a report from the vanguard saying that all the people in the city had fled and there was no one in the city. Jin Shengheng was furious and said, "These unruly people are so hateful."

Everyone in the city ran away, and the free laborers disappeared. Jin Shengheng was of course angry. He originally intended to use Jing County as a grain and grass transfer station so that he could recruit laborers in the city. He never thought that this group of unruly people would dare to run away. They could only run away in this mountainous area of Gan. If it were the plains in the north, where could these unruly people run to? However, he had many people and sent people out to catch them. As for whether they could be caught, it didn't matter at all. It would be better if they could be caught, but there would be no loss if they couldn't.

Thinking of this, Jin Shengheng ordered his subordinates to send troops deep into the mountains to plunder the people, trying to capture more people to serve as laborers.

However, what Jin Shengheng did not expect was that the original intention was to capture people, but the more they captured, the fewer people they captured. Sometimes, 500 soldiers left the camp, but only more than 400 returned. Seeing this, Jin Shengheng became even more angry and issued a strict order: "If less than 90% of the soldiers who left the camp return, they will be punished together!"

But the next day after the military order was issued, an entire team of people disappeared without a trace, which scared Jin Shengheng so much that he stopped issuing orders to capture civilians. This made Jin Shengheng feel uneasy. He doubted whether this human wave tactic could work. How come even the officers escaped?

However, it was not true that the entire team was led away by the officers, but they were captured by Zhou army scouts.

The mountains are continuous, and a 500-man troop under Jin Shengheng is wandering in the mountains and forests like hungry wolves. They are searching everywhere for the hiding people, trying to force them into the army. Under the leadership of a captain with a beard and arrogance in his eyes, they are shouting and screaming in the mountains, making the people hiding here tremble with fear.

"Master Qian, there are footprints over there..."

"Master Qianzong..."

Li He was delighted to hear the title of "Captain Qian" again and again. In this seemingly safe forest, there was a scout team of ten people hidden. However, there were only six people beside Li He at this moment, and four of them were hiding horses outside the mountain. Although there was hope of success in the mission, it would be extremely difficult to capture this person alive.

Captain Li He was an experienced scout. He knew that if he wanted to get more accurate information, there was no better way than to capture the enemy general. The order given to him by the commander was only to find out whether Jin Shengheng was marching along Jing County. For this kind of thing, it would be enough to capture a middle-level officer. A thousand-man commander was more than enough!

But Li He knew very well that facing an enemy force dozens of times larger than his own, a head-on conflict would undoubtedly be a dead end, so he could only use his wits. At this time, the captain had ordered his subordinates to scatter in search of civilians. From a distance, he seemed a little tired, sitting on a small stool, with two soldiers beside him fanning him. Li He lay on the small slope, counting the soldiers around the captain. Although there were not many people, there were only about twenty people, less than thirty. Li He was a little hesitant, not knowing whether he should take action.

This captain's name was Sun Tianyi. He was originally just a general flag. However, when he encountered a major military expansion that had not been seen in a century, he was promoted several levels and quickly became a captain.

Just when Sun Tianyi was happily enjoying the cool breeze, Li He took action. While the bandits were searching for civilians, he assassinated six people, changed into the clothes and armor of Jin Shengheng's troops, and then the six people slowly approached where Sun Tianyi was.

Several of Sun Tianyi's subordinates looked at Li He and his six companions with some confusion, but no one asked any questions until they were already 20 steps away from Sun Tianyi. Then one of the guards yelled at Li He, "Why are you six running here instead of looking for the troublemakers?"

Hearing this, cold sweat broke out on Li He's palms, but at this moment, he had the only way to fight to the death. Seeing that these people did not respond and their steps were getting faster and faster, Sun Tianyi immediately realized that something was wrong, but it was too late. Li He and the scouts rushed towards Sun Tianyi like tigers descending from the mountains. They were holding weapons and moving quickly. Li He growled and slashed the guard who reprimanded him on the neck with his sword. The guard knelt on the ground with an expression of disbelief, covering his neck.

Although Sun Tianyi looked fierce, he was frightened and panicked by such a sudden attack. The scouts cooperated well, hacking left and right, and killed Sun Tianyi. With only two slashes, Sun Tianyi's long sword was chopped off by Li He. The scouts captured him alive, and the other soldiers saw this and stopped patrolling. Li He tied Sun Tianyi tightly with ropes and forced him to order the soldiers to retreat.

Sun Tianyi had only been the captain of a thousand men for a short time. He had neither the prestige to command the soldiers to die for him, not to mention that most of these soldiers were conscripted. The twenty or so soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment and watched Sun Tianyi being captured alive by six people who came from nowhere.

Following the news that their commander had been captured, some soldiers were afraid of being punished. They said that they could not get enough to eat in the camp anyway, and now their commander was gone, so they might be subject to military law if they returned, so they might as well just escape. Once these words were spoken, everyone followed suit. Occasionally, there were some who were unwilling to do so, but they were also afraid of the strict order that Jin Shengheng had just issued, that if they did not return to the camp in sufficient numbers, they would be punished as well. As a result, the entire team disappeared without a trace, and even the captured civilians were abandoned on the spot.

………………

Gu Yanwu was in the army, looking at the mighty army and the military tents with fluttering flags. He was so excited that he wrote an article about Jin Shengheng's eight defeats and Zhou army's eight victories. The article listed the reasons why Meng Jun had eight victories and Jin Shengheng was bound to lose from many aspects, including people's hearts, economy, population, food, taxes, war strength, and even destiny.

After the newspaper was finished, Gu Yanwu showed it to Meng Jun. After reading it, Meng Jun raised his eyebrows, looked at Gu Yanwu, and said, "Sir, the article is logically rigorous and well-argued. It is indeed a great article. However, some of the statements in it are a bit exaggerated. For example, this sentence, the heroes chosen by heaven have great talents and strategies, wisdom and courage, and can make plans and win battles thousands of miles away. And this sentence, what is meant by "Every time there is a war, auspicious signs will appear in the sky, indicating that they will win", isn't this a bit exaggerated."

Meng Jun asked with a somewhat wry smile, while Gu Yanwu laughed and said, "Your Majesty, I added the theory of destiny, otherwise we wouldn't have won eight victories!"