Annam followed the Ming and Qing dynasties, with civilian officials leading the generals, and the governor of Haiphong Province, Li Yu, was originally a political envoy of Shanxi Province, and after exterminating Xie Wenfeng, a local peasant armed force in Annam, he was promoted to the governor of Haiphong because of his merits, and managed the military defense of Haiphong and Quang An provinces.

Five days ago, Li Yu had just sent away a group of French missionaries when he saw one of his staff members rushing to pay a visit.

"My lord, I have something important to report to my lord."

"Tell me quickly, this official doesn't have time to listen to your nonsense!" Just got angry from the French, Li Yu didn't have a good face.

"The lowly official got the news that the Tang armed forces have been converging in the Xialong area in recent months, according to the investigation of his subordinates, the Tang people who have gathered in Xialong have exceeded 10,000 people, and the Tang people have assembled on a large scale, and the lowly is worried that they have other plans." The staff said cautiously.

"Didn't the Tang people say hello half a month ago? They were hired by the Brazilian State of America to recruit the Tang people from Annam to work in South America, and you know why there was such a fuss. ”

Sun Bin bribed the local officials in Annan, and naturally Li Yu's money was indispensable, and he accepted money from people to do things for others, and Li Yu held his own identity as a scholar, and he still complied with what he promised, so he was very dissatisfied with the staff bothering him with this matter.

"Adults are busy with affairs, and they don't dare to bother adults to be distracted by ordinary trivial matters, but this group of Tang people is not as simple as the merchants on the surface, since the merchant leader arrived in Xialong last month, not only recruited Tang rebel forces, but also transported food and weapons and materials through large ships, and trained Tang people to be young and strong soldiers. In less than a month, the head of the Tang dynasty, Sun Bin, had thousands of young and strong men and more than 1,000 muskets.

My lord, the Tang people recruited people to train soldiers, but they didn't do it by businessmen! ”

"Are you telling the truth?"

"If there is half a lie, I would rather be dealt with by military law!"

The staff said in a righteous manner.

"Okay, this official is pitiful and the Tang people rebelled against the righteous actions of the Tartars, risked offending the Manchu Tartars, and kindly took you in, but you didn't know the good intentions, but followed the gangsters' intentions to rebel, it is really an unforgivable crime!"

Li Yu's face was pale, obviously stimulated by the news he heard, but his performance fell in the eyes of his staff, but it was a different look, the Tang rebel forces fled into Annan not because the officials were kind enough to take them in, but because they defeated the encircled and suppressed Annan army, forcing the other party to acquiesce in the fact that the peasant army was armed.

The staff did not humorously remind the governor of the failure of the encirclement and suppression of Wu Yazhong's armed forces last year, but followed his words and said: "Sun Bin, the leader of the Tang Dynasty, recruited troops without authorization and set up a village with bad intentions. After the Tang people were exterminated, the Lords of Hue would certainly appreciate your good leadership and recommend them to your Majesty to serve in the court. ”

After the signing of the first "Saigon Treaty", Haiphong was opened up as a treaty port, and although Le Yu served as the governor of Haiphong on the surface, he had to face the control of the French and naturalized Annam Christians.

Huang Jiyan was in charge of the affairs of the northern provinces of Annam, and there were not many officials under his command, so he vetoed Le Yu's request, appeased him to stay in Haiphong to serve the country, and waited until the situation in the northern provinces stabilized before transferring him back.

Because of Huang Jiyan's words, Li Yu had to continue to nest in Haiphong Province, and now there is a group of non-Tang forces entrenched in Quang An Province, which also brings worries when he sees the hope of returning to the imperial court.

Annam's domestic forces were slack, and the combat capability of the soldiers was low, and in the course of fighting the French army, five or six thousand soldiers were often outmatched by two hundred opposing troops.

The Annan army was defeated repeatedly, unable to defeat the French, the remnants of the peasant army in exile, and even the local rebels, and finally asked the Qing army to enter the customs to fight, barely quelling the peasant uprising in the country.

With such an army under his command, Li Yu was not very confident that he would be able to defeat the Tang forces entrenched in Xialong.

Seeing the hesitant look on his lord's face, the staff felt that their opportunity had come, and hurriedly spoke: "Your Excellency can ask the imperial court to send General Feng, the governor of Guangxi, to send troops to help encircle and suppress the Tang forces, so that the rebellious forces in the Xialong region can be wiped out." ”

"No, the last time the Qing army was invited to enter the country to suppress the thieves, it has caused the dissatisfaction of the French, if the Qing army is asked to enter the customs again to help, the French are afraid that they will tear up the "Saigon Treaty" and attack the country in an all-out way."

Li Yu's refusal to invite the Qing army into the country was partly due to the attitude of the French, and on the other hand, his distrust of the Qing army. The Qing army inherited the Manchu Eight Banners system, and every time they fought, they would loot places to boost the morale of the troops, so although the Qing army that entered Vietnam last time exterminated the rebel forces in Annam, but the people in the places they passed through suffered greatly, their property and livestock were robbed, and young women were brutally violent. Inviting the Qing army to enter the customs is a double sword, and until the moment of necessity, neither Le Yu nor the Hue court will choose this path.

Excluding the option of the Qing army entering the country, there was only one way in front of Li Yu, relying on the strength of the Annan army to encircle and suppress the Tang forces.

Li Yu is in charge of the armies of Haiphong and Quang An provinces, and the number of soldiers that can be dispatched is about 10,000, and 10,000 against one or two thousand Tang armed forces is a victory or defeat in Li Yu's eyes, and in order to achieve a greater victory rate, it is necessary to transfer more troops.

After thinking about it repeatedly, Li Yu decided to borrow troops from his colleague at the time of quelling the rebellion, the current governor of Haiyang, Ruan Keshu, and his mind was decided, so he immediately said: "I want to borrow 4,000 troops from Ruan Keshu, the governor of Haiyang, and Yuan Jia will quickly send someone down to arrange it." ”

The staff persuaded Li Yu to send troops to exterminate Sun Bin's troops, naturally not for the sake of the general plan of the Annan court, and when he heard that Li Yu was going to borrow troops from other officials, he didn't care about concealing it, so he hurriedly said: "Your Excellency, you must not, I heard that Sun Bin, the leader of the Tang Dynasty, is worth a lot of money and silver, and there is a large amount of gold and silver stored by him in the Xialong camp. ”

"Does the Lower Dragon really store a lot of gold?" As soon as the word gold entered his ears, Li Yu was not calm in an instant, the gold of the prosperous antiques and troubled times, the internal and external troubles of the Hue court were serious, and it was the consensus of officials at all levels in Annam to make more money while he was in power, otherwise Sun Bin would not be so easy to buy off officials of Guang'an.

The staff members are close to Li Yu, and they also received bribes from Sun Bin, but compared with ordinary officials, he is more greedy and wants to rely on Li Yu's power to swallow the money of Sun Bin and others.

The staff didn't want Sun Bin and others to have a large amount of gold and silver to be known by more people, so they immediately agitated: "Don't hide it, not long after the leader of the Tang merchants arrived in Xialong, he found that something was wrong with them, so he specially told a few petty officials near Xialong to keep an eye on them secretly, and three days ago, when the Tang fleet was unloading, he accidentally dropped a box, revealing the gold hidden inside. ”

"If there is gold in one chest, how can you tell if the other chests are also gold?"

"There are many gold hidden in the other boxes, and I don't know if I think about it, my lord, if you think about it carefully, the Tang people spend money to supply tens of thousands of people with food and materials, and tens of thousands of taels of silver to bribe officials, are they not distressed at all, will they have less money?"

"What you say makes sense, too." Li Yu thought of the five hundred taels of gold in the back house of the Governor's Palace, according to his understanding, bribing him alone cost so much gold, dozens of officials of all sizes in Guang'an Province, the total amount is also not small, and then thinking of the gold and silver transported by the big ship, Li Yu's eyes immediately lit up.

"The opportunity must not be lost, and it will not come again, there are still five or six thousand local patrol militia groups in Haiphong and Guang'an provinces, and if they are recruited together, can the 17,000-strong troops still be able to take one or two thousand Tang rebels?"

Li Yu's confidence in the words of the staff increased greatly, and he thought of the yellow and clear gold in the Xialong camp, and his courage also increased.

"It is the duty of the official to suppress bandits and reassure the people, and the official decided to personally lead the armies of the two provinces to sweep away the armed forces of the Xialong Tang people, and return the people of Guang'an to a bright future."

A huge amount of wealth is close at hand, and Li Yu also feels that it is worth taking some risks for this.

The decision was made that the messenger carrying Li Yu's handwritten letter went to the army garrisons of the two provinces to gather the army, but on the other side, Sun Bin, who was entangled in everything, did not expect that in order to avoid trouble, he would bribe officials with more money and attract others to prying eyes.