Chapter 15 6. Attack Hengjian Mountain at night, win more with less

In Lupai Village, Zhu Yuanzhang got 3,000 strong men, plus hundreds of troops from Qin Batou, and more than 700 people recruited from his hometown, the people who came to serve after conquering Dingyuan, and the Yuan army who surrendered. Five thousand soldiers. Seeing such achievements in such a short period of time, Tang He and Xu Da felt overwhelmed with complacency. They were eager to call Zhu Yuanzhang a marshal, and urged Zhu Yuanzhang and Guo Zixing to draw a clear line and become independent. In this regard, Zhu Yuanzhang has his own ideas. He thinks that a mere 5,000 soldiers are nothing. Now that he has become independent, he is weak and either besieged by Haozhou or wiped out by the Yuan army.But following Guo Zixing all the time is not a solution. Not only are the brothers unwilling to hand over the supplies and food they got to Guo Zixing, but Zhu Yuanzhang himself is also very reluctant.He knew that those materials were the basis for his recruitment and fighting, but he knew in his heart that it was not the best time to be independent now.

Tang He and Xu Da saw Zhu Yuanzhang's hesitation and contradictions, and suggested that Zhu Yuanzhang should not rush to leave Guo Zixing, but first develop his own military power, expand his territory, and then seek independence. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang set the short-term goal as expanding the army. Without his own army, everything is just fishing for moons in water.Zhu Yuanzhang set his sights on Hengjian Mountain. There was an army of 20,000 people in this place. With such a large number of people, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that persuading surrender and using small tricks were not feasible.Zhu Yuanzhang knew that it was not easy to fight 20,000 people with his own strength of 5,000 people. The most important thing in war is to know yourself and the enemy, and avoid recklessness and emotion.

Zhu Yuanzhang first inquired about the situation of the commander-in-chief of Hengjianshan troops in detail.It turned out that the commander of this army was named Miao Daheng. When the Yuan army besieged Haozhou, he took the initiative to gather troops and follow the Yuan army, hoping that the Yuan army would take over Haozhou city, and he would be able to take advantage of it. Unexpectedly, his His wishful thinking came to nothing, and the Yuan army was defeated. He had to lead 20,000 people to retreat to Hengjian Mountain. Therefore, this is a very special army, especially when Zhu Yuanzhang learned that Miao Daheng's main force was a large number of landlord armed forces, and his supporters were not only the Yuan Dynasty, but also local landlords and rich men.However, Zhu Yuanzhang's soldiers and even the main force of the entire Red Turban Army were farmers. This is the difference between the two classes.Zhu Yuanzhang fell into deep thought about how to win more with less, and how to win the disadvantaged group over the strong group.

Two days later, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to go to Hengjian Mountain to observe the terrain in person. Zhu Yuanzhang, Fei Ju, Shao Rong, Gu Shi, and Qin Baotou led a dozen soldiers, dressed up as rich men, went hunting in the mountains, and rode to the foot of Hengjian Mountain.Looking up, the forest is vigorous and deep, the mountains are high and the clouds are light, and the scenery is pleasant. Only a few rugged mountain roads can be seen vaguely.Zhu Yuanzhang and Fei Ju went up the mountain separately and made an appointment to meet at the bottom of the mountain at noon. No matter what the situation was, they had to hold back and not stir up trouble.

Zhu Yuanzhang took a few soldiers and ran into an old man cutting firewood on the way up the mountain. He only said that he went up the mountain to hunt, and then politely inquired about the situation of Hengjian Mountain.The old man said: "This mountain has a radius of more than 50 miles, and there are five or six roads leading to the mountain. live.The old man laughed and said, "It's not just the residents, but also the garrison." Zhu Yuanzhang pretended not to know, and only knew that he was a foreigner who came here to do business.The old man said: "I heard that there are thousands of volunteer soldiers on this mountain, led by a man named Miao Daheng." Zhu Yuanzhang said, "It doesn't look like a garrison mountain. Where are those people guarding?" The old man said : "From this mountain road, bypassing three or four peaks, you can reach Yunlong Peak. There is a village on the peak, and in the village are Daheng Miao's men and horses stationed."

Zhu Yuanzhang thanked the old man and walked leisurely on the forest path, but he was thinking about how to fight this battle. When they got together in the afternoon, Fei Ju and the others reported the information they had investigated to Zhu Yuanzhang. After returning to Dingyuan, Zhu Yuanzhang thought about it, and felt that the terrain of Hengjian Mountain was dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and his own soldiers were few.Tang He suggested that it is better to set fire to the mountain from the bottom of the mountain at night. Anyway, there is only one side of the mountain with a road, and it is difficult for these people to escape.Although this can win battles, it cannot withdraw troops.Zhu Yuanzhang wanted people, the 20,000 soldiers, but Tang He's suggestion inspired him.

Zhu Yuanzhang thought that the surprise attack on Hengjian Mountain at night would catch the people in the village by surprise and they would be hard to guard against. Moreover, the village owner didn't know how many people and horses were under the mountain, and how many were ambushing everywhere, so he threatened and threatened at the right time. Lead troops to surrender. On the next night, Zhu Yuanzhang led 4,000 elite soldiers. Tang He, Xu Da, Zhou Dexing, Shao Rong, Hua Yun and others were in charge of each department, and they were in charge of the vanguard, all the way to Hengjian Mountain.Hengjian Mountain is only two or three miles away from Dingyuan, and it will arrive in the blink of an eye.Before setting off, Zhu Yuanzhang specifically emphasized that no one is allowed to hurt people, only capture but not kill.

Zhu Yuanzhang ordered all the generals to lead the troops to make a surprise attack from the main road, and the rest of them went up the mountain from the other four trails.At the command of the army, a few passers-by quietly went up the mountain, leaving a thousand elite soldiers to guard at the foot of the mountain, another thousand elite soldiers to respond on the mountainside, and the remaining two thousand soldiers scattered and advanced, surrounded on all sides. When the detachments of the various ministries were approaching Yunlong Peak, Zhu Yuanzhang gave an order, and the officers and men of the various ministries shouted loudly to kill, and the sky was full of gongs and drums.This is Zhu Yuanzhang's intentional formation, so that the other party can't figure out how many people he has.When the stronghold heard that there was an attack, there was chaos and panic. The first person to escape was Yuan Ting's supervising army. captured by soldiers.

Zhu Yuanzhang made people take advantage of the situation to yell outside, saying that the supervisor had escaped and was arrested, and that the cottage was surrounded by tens of thousands of heavy soldiers, and there was no way to escape. The people in the cottage were asked to come out and fight as soon as possible.I saw that the gate of the cottage was still tightly closed, and Zhu Yuanzhang also stood still, only making noise outside the gate of the village.Zhu Yuanzhang already understood in his heart that most of the soldiers in the cottage were frightened. In the middle of the night, Miao Daheng must have woken up from his dream and hadn't gathered anyone yet.

Several of the soldiers from Lvpai Village had contacts with Hengjian Mountain. Zhu Yuanzhang sent Gu Shi and one of them who was acquainted with Miao Daheng to the village to communicate, explaining his intention to unite them. After a while, Gu Shi came out and said that Daheng Miao had invited Zhu Yuanzhang into the village for negotiations. Fei Ju and the others wanted to follow, but Zhu Yuanzhang stopped them.He decided to go to the meeting alone to show his sincerity and the strength of the troops outside the village. Zhu Yuanzhang entered the village majestically, and his personal charm and courage first conquered the soldiers guarding the village.After seeing Daheng Miao, Zhu Yuanzhang insisted on the benefits of the alliance, but also lamented the decay and corruption of the Yuan army, and hinted that the mountain had been surrounded by the Red Scarf Army.Miao Daheng saw that Zhu Yuanzhang dared to go to negotiate alone, and his words were sincere. He was a courageous person, and he had heard of Zhu Yuanzhang's reputation in Dingyuan. Thinking that he had no way out now, he agreed to Zhu Yuanzhang's request to unite.

Speaking of alliance, everyone knew in their hearts that Zhu Yuanzhang forcibly withdrew troops, but he had no choice but to save his life and strength first. Miao Daheng had to agree to lead 20,000 soldiers to accompany Zhu Yuanzhang down the mountain. Zhu Yuanzhang knew that it was not easy to enter the city with so many soldiers late at night, and he was afraid that something would happen on the road, so he decided that Fei Ju, Hua Yun and Miao Daheng would lead 8,000 people back to the city overnight, leaving behind his own 3,000 troops and the captured soldiers. More than 10,000 people camped at the foot of the mountain and left at dawn. That night, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't sleep well. He had been observing the militiamen driven down from the mountain, thinking that these people would wait for an opportunity to escape or resist.However, all these militiamen slept soundly and peacefully, and lived in peace all night.This made Zhu Yuanzhang even more worried. Such soldiers obviously lacked training and lacked loyalty and filial piety.Seeing the failure of others, Zhu Yuanzhang began to think about how he could have a solid tomorrow.The result of his whole night's thinking was that he had to reorganize the army and step up training. After dawn, Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to escort these militiamen back to the city in batches, and he was the last to hold the line.In order to ensure a smooth journey, Zhu Yuanzhang deliberately did not take the main road, but chose a rugged mountain road to prevent people from fleeing on the way, and finally returned smoothly and everything was fine. Having obtained 20,000 militiamen from Hengjian Mountain, plus the hundreds of troops brought by the Feng brothers, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to reorganize all the soldiers immediately.Because these people lack training and poor military discipline, it is difficult to command. He wants to train these returned troops into a strong Zhu surname army.Zhu Yuanzhang's military genius lies not only in leading troops to fight, but also in his training of the army. When Zhu Yuanzhang made the adaptation, he did not make a big promise like other rebel leaders, saying that fighting is for future enjoyment, but sincerely stated the purpose of the rebel uprising: to protect the people so that they can live and work in peace and contentment; The importance of military discipline.He also told everyone that discipline is not for asking everyone, but for restraining the generals and building a strong army, which is not like the vulnerable copycat soldiers before, so that they can make contributions and achieve peace in the world. Everyone from soldiers to generals admired these demands.Soon, Zhu Yuanzhang had an elite army of ten thousand soldiers. The night attack on Hengjian Mountain was the first time in Zhu Yuanzhang's war history that he fought a small-to-many battle, and he won a big victory.The 20,000 people obtained were all young and middle-aged, which greatly enhanced Zhu Yuanzhang's military strength and paved the way for him to successfully attack Chuzhou in the future and develop independently.In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang's elite teachers gradually accumulated.