After the battle, Ma Gui sighed as he looked at the 50 modified Franc Cannons. He caressed one of them and said, "Today, I finally know what firearms are."
Xiao Ruxun smiled and said, "It's just a few minor modifications. If the firearms produced by the Great Ming Dynasty can be increased by ten to twenty percent, I can also double the number of firearms I can use. General Ma might not know this, but in my Ping Lu City's arsenal before the war, out of 1,200 unused muskets, only 478 are usable. The rest are crudely made, and there's a risk of exploding the moment they're fired. This makes me angry and helpless."
Ma Gui frowned and then relaxed: "No matter how powerful the firearms are, they are still for people to use. I don't have many firearms that I can use. I gave them all to General Xiao so that you can expand the firearms camp. In the future, you might need them on the battlefield. There are many firearms in the Nine Regions, but there are very few people who are good at using them. There are even fewer generals who can use them. It's great that General Xiao understands this!"
Xiao Ruxun nodded in agreement.
Not long after, Xiao Ruhui and Zhao Hu came together to report the results of the battle. At the same time, they also said something that was a little hard to explain. In the camp, there were 37 women who were captured by the rebel army. They were lucky enough to survive the battle, but they were all humiliated by the rebel army, and didn't know what to do.
Ma Gui was enraged. He and Xiao Ruxun went into the barracks to check. They saw thirty-seven disheveled and frightened women, and then looked at the rebel soldiers kneeling in front of them. Ma Gui ruthlessly kicked them.
"Animals worse than beasts!"
Saying that, he took out his sword and killed a guy who looked like an officer, scaring the rest of the dozens of rebel army captives into silence.
Xiao Ruhui said: "These should be the women who were captured in Ningxia City."
"The wives and daughters of the silver in the army, behead! General, I request to execute these animals that are worse than pigs and dogs! "
Xiao Ruxun asked for Ma Gui's permission with a black face. Ma Gui waved his hand to show his approval, and Xiao Ruhui immediately brought a group of murderous soldiers to drag out the fifty or so rebels who surrendered, pressing them to the ground and killing them. Their heads were chopped off and counted as military merits. Everyone had a tacit understanding. As for these women, Ma Gui really did not know how to deal with them.
Faced with such a situation, Xiao Ruxun could only say to Wang Hui who was beside her: "Ziheng, you … arrange for some soldiers to get some water for these women to freshen up, find some clean clothes, and then protect them in the army. After the rebellion is quelled, send them back home … Don't mention the matter of them being humiliated by the rebel army. If anyone has any ill intentions, kill them!
After reorganizing himself a little, Ma Gui once again gathered his troops and launched an assault on the rebel army strongholds around Ning Xia Town. Under Xiao Ruxun's command, artillery fire filled the skies, causing the rebel army to throw away their helmets and armor, and the strongholds were uprooted one by one. Following that, the rebel army's northern periphery, the very important Fort Raiford, was also breached.
Inside Ningxia City, Bo Bai and Liu Dongyang, who stayed behind to guard the city, were already indescribably frightened.
Originally, Chi Chengen, Xu Chao, and the rest of the rebel army had been losing against the attacks of Dong Yikui, Li Zhi, and Zhao Wu. They had already lost more than half of the forty-seven forts they had taken down. Seeing that the Ming Army from the north was about to approach Ningxia City, they were already in a terrible situation. Unfortunately, the last mobile troop under their command had been taken by Bo Yun to annihilate Pinglu City, and Xiao Ruxun's troops had yet to return. They were burning with anxiety.
A day and a half ago, a shocking piece of news came, directly causing Bo Bai and Liu Dongyang to be stunned on the spot. It was like a bolt from the blue, and they were at a loss of what to do.
The allied army of Bo Yun and Mighty Rabbit, which numbered nearly ten thousand, was defeated by Xiao Ruxun in Pinglu City. Bo Yun and Mighty Rabbit died, and most of the troops were slaughtered. Only a few escaped, and most of them even ran away. Only a few of Liu Dongyang's troops escaped back to report the news, and the enraged Liu Dongyang ordered them to be executed!
The routed troops were killed, but the army's morale was completely shaken. Originally, even if Bo Yun was killed, Bo Bai would not feel that they had reached a dead end. That was because Bo Bai's greatest support was actually the Mongolian invaders in the Hetao region, which was just outside the Great Wall. That was his greatest source of confidence and support, and he could ask for reinforcements at any time. Mighty Rabbit and the others had already arrived, and there were also a few cavalry from a few tribes who were helping Si Chengen in battle.
In the end, Mighty Rabbit was dead! The entire army was wiped out! More than three hundred of the three thousand cavalrymen had run away, and they had even run all the way to the west without looking back. It was as if they had been scared out of their wits.
Was that Xiao Ruxun a god?!
Bo Bai let out a loud roar and fainted on the ground, leaving Liu Dongyang in a daze. He simply fainted as well. From this point, it could be seen that the two of them really did not have the mental fortitude to rebel. Rebellion was a very technical and challenging task. If one did not have the spirit to take advantage of adversity, it was better to go home, wash up, and sleep!
Bo Bai had such a plan. In the end, just as he was about to pack up his things, he saw that the situation was not good and immediately fled far away into the desert. However, he received news that a Ming Army from the northeast was attacking the outskirts of Ningxia Town. Not far away, the sound of cannons rumbling could be heard, and the entire city of Ningxia began to tremble. Even Liu Dongyang noticed the fear and unease of his subordinates!
It had only been a month since the rebellion started! And they had already been attacked to their base?!
Following that, an even more shocking news came — the Ming Army did not have a lot of people, but they had been attacking the north and west of Ningxia Town. They consecutively destroyed more than ten strongholds and defeated more than two thousand rebel soldiers. Almost all of the rebel army's strongholds in the northwest and north of Ningxia Town had been taken over by the Ming Army. Most of the defenders had been killed, and the rest had surrendered. Only a small number of routed soldiers dared to come back and report!
Liu Dongyang's eyes rolled back and he fainted again. Bo Bai looked at him and thought, You're really not right. I was just about to faint, but you fainted first. Then how can I faint again?!
Thus, the panic-stricken and dazed Bo Bai fiercely bit his own tongue, using the pain to stimulate his nerves, desperately trying to calm himself down …
After the attack began, Xiao Ruxun analyzed the situation of Ningxia Town. He felt that his troops did not have many troops, and in order to forcefully march, he did not bring many siege weapons. It was a pipe dream to rely on just a few dozen cannons to attack Ningxia Town. It was unwise to rashly launch an attack on the tall Ningxia Town. Furthermore, Bo Bai's greatest reliance in rebelling against the imperial court was nothing more than trapping the captives.
As for the part about Taowu, Mighty Rabbit's troops have already been completely annihilated. Now, we can directly cut off the connection between Ningxia's main city and Taowu, occupying all the fortresses in the entire northern part of Ningxia and firmly defending them. This is the best plan, and it will definitely deter Bo Bai and Taowu from the outside.
Ma Gui was overjoyed and thought that this was a good plan. Thus, he ordered the entire army to launch a surprise attack on the northern part of Ningxia Town. With Xiao Ruhui and General Zhao Hu as the vanguard, they won every battle. Xiao Ruxun assisted them with carriages and cannons. Before every attack, he would first bombard the enemy with cannon fire, causing the enemy to be thrown into confusion. Then, his army would launch a surprise attack. In a single day, they had destroyed fifteen strongholds of the rebel army and completely occupied the northern fortress, completely cutting off the connection between the rebel army and the captives. At the same time, they rescued over five hundred men and women who had been taken captive.
On the 23rd day, Xiao Ruxun sent someone to report the current battle situation to Wei Xuezeng, requesting that Wei Xuezeng come to their aid as soon as possible.
On the 24th day of the third month of the twentieth year of Wan Li, the scouts reported that the rebel army had already withdrawn the remaining strongholds outside the eastern and western parts of the city. All of the rebel army had been transferred into the city, and the number of soldiers on the walls of Ningxia increased. Xiao Ruxun realized that Bo Bai was at his wit's end and decided to defend Ningxia City to the death.
On the 25th day of the third month of the twentieth year of Wan Li, a cavalry troop of over eight hundred people left the city at dawn to launch a surprise attack on Ma Gui's army camp. However, they were trapped by the prepared Xiao Ruxun's trap formation. Then, cannons and bullets were fired. Ma Gui suppressed them with arrows from the rear. The rebel cavalry suffered heavy losses, with only over a hundred people remaining. They fled back to the city in a panic. The Ming Army beheaded over five hundred people and seized over two hundred horses that were either in good condition or lightly injured. The remaining horses that had died were all chopped up and used as rations, allowing the soldiers to eat three meals of horse meat to their heart's content.
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