Han Shizu

Chapter 442

More than ten days before the beginning of winter in the fourth year of Qianyou, the situation in the northern kingdom was turbulent, enough to see the eyes of Huaren.The Han and Liao countries mobilized hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and the soldiers were facing each other. The cloud of war completely shrouded the sky over Hebei.

The Khitan changed emperors, the Han emperor stopped the northern expedition, and the Yanyan border, under the restraint of the upper echelons of the two countries, unanimously stopped fighting.

Those who are deeply confused are almost at a loss. Among them, the uncomfortable ones belong to the two divisions with more than [-] paces.The exhaustion of the march was second to none. The most important thing was that most of the soldiers were ready for a bloody battle with the Khitans. After receiving the military order, they stopped fighting the Khitans and marched south instead.
However, as a soldier, even if you feel puzzled, just follow orders.There are not many complaints, even if there are, I dare to bury them in my heart.There may still be a lot of omissions in the Han Dynasty's cultural system, but the military law is perfect enough. In the barracks, if you complain, you will be punished severely, and in wartime you will be beheaded directly.In addition, the emperor placed comfort envoys in the various armies, which also began to work.

The army continued to advance towards Huainan. As the battalion commanders Wang Jun and Murong Yanzhao were in Tokyo, they were ordered to enter the palace to receive the emperor's teachings.In his usual style, Liu Chengyou didn't repeat himself, he said bluntly that he had fully entrusted the Erqing with the affairs of the front camp in Huainan, and I should take care of the affairs in the north.

Murong Yanzhao humbly expressed to the duty of guarding the people and ministers that he would do his best to capture the Huainan states for His Majesty, occupy their land, property, and Dingkou, and wipe out the puppet Tang army.In terms of strategic goals, Murong Yanzhao has a good understanding.

In comparison, Wang Jun is much more arrogant.Ever since he led his troops to fight against Shu in the early years of Qianyou, and defeated the Shu army in the Battle of Jifeng Mountain, Wang Jun has been somewhat arrogant and difficult to control. Even in the two years in the Privy Council, he has not smoothed his edges and corners.

This time, when he was assigned to the front camp of the Southern Expedition, he directly patted his chest and assured Liu Chengyou: "The affairs of Huainan will be taken care of by my ministers. Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will take all the land and offer it to the palace!"

He is very imposing and ambitious, but the tone makes people feel uncomfortable, but Liu Chengyou is just the kind of person who can bear it.Wang Jun's character problem is not yet a reason for Liu Chengyou to give up using him.

Of course, it's not that Liu Chengyou didn't think about changing the commander, it's just that it was difficult to find a suitable commander for a while.Someone suggested Guo Wei, but Liu Chengyou ignored it and remembered the privy official who made the suggestion.

As for the other suitable people, Gao Xingzhou, the patriarch of the state, is ill, Fu Yanqing needs to be in Yedu, Guo Congyi is also in command of Chan and Hua garrison, and Zhe Congruan is still in the northwest.As for the others, they were either not enough for Liu Chengyou to trust, or they were not capable enough.

Or, it is completely lack of qualifications, such as Murong Yanzhao, even though Liu Chengyou has been promoted repeatedly, but there is still a distance from the commander of the army, Liu Chengyou can only put him in the position of Duke Yuhou.

Although Liu Chengyou has promoted many young and strong generals and ministers in recent years, when it comes to mobilizing the army, he still has to consider the issue of seniority.

With Wang Jun, the worry is that this person is arrogant and hard to control, but the rest assured is also his character.People with this personality, to be honest, are not difficult to deal with.Of course, the most fundamental thing is that Wang Jun has the ability to command an army. Liu Chengyou still remembers him defending the border and fighting the enemy in Guanzhong.

Suzhou, since the imperial court formulated the Huainan strategy, has become a frontier state that the Han Dynasty focused on.Zhao Kuangyin, the training envoy of the regiment, and Wang Pu, the food envoy of Huaibei, successively arrived in office. Coupled with the inclination of various resources of the imperial court, Suzhou has developed into the most important military, transportation, and economic center in Huaibei in two or three years. .

For a long time, the imperial court has built Suzhou as a base for the army to go south. In order to hide its military intentions, Zhao Kuangyin, the military and political chief of a state, has broken his heart in the past three years.

Of course, after such experience, Zhao Kuangyin grew up very fast, and no one in Suzhou dared to underestimate this young regimental envoy. The people of "Xiao Zhao envoy" have even spread to Huainan I went, after all, there is only water.

Up to now, the state government is so strong that the city is far away. According to Zhao Kuangyin, he can hold back [-] soldiers with Suzhou soldiers.In the north of Fuli and the south of the canal, Zhao Kuangyin has recruited peasants to build more than ten large warehouses, each of which stores grain, ordnance, and clothing.At the end of the autumn of the fourth year of Qianyou, with the last batch of grain materials transferred by Wang Pu, all the big warehouses were already full.

In order to secretly build these large warehouses, Zhao Kuangyin also cleverly set up a name, in the name of building wharfs, roads, and canals, and concealed the news if he could.Even the civilian husbands who participated in the project were recruited by Zhao Kuangyin from the imperial court for civil service from Songzhou and even the outer states further north.

In the spring and summer of this year, the people in Huainan were hungry. Some of them ate in Suzhou and were ordered to help. Zhao Kuangyin selected hundreds of strong people from among them to repair warehouses and build military buildings. Some fugitives who couldn't bear it were ordered to be beheaded by Zhao Kuangyin without mercy.
Being on the first line of going south, an important place for military transportation, in order not to expose the strategic direction of the imperial court, Zhao Kuangyin worked hard in Suzhou and did everything he could think of.It would be difficult to achieve Zhao Kuangyin's level by changing anyone casually.

In Tokyo, when inspecting the preparations for the war, Liu Chengyou praised Zhao Kuangyin's achievements in Suzhou.In fact, according to Liu Chengyou's employment style, Zhao Kuangyin was up for promotion early, but he kept suppressing it. Of course, even if the court wanted to transfer his post, Zhao Kuangyin would not be happy.As long as he makes more achievements in the Southern Expedition, Zhao Kuangyin will surely soar into the sky in the future.

A hundred miles to the south of Fuli, the mouth of the vortex, the junction of the three prefectures of Su, Hao, and Shou, where the water of the vortex flows into the Huaihe River.As the military and political chief of Suzhou, Zhao Kuangyin once again took the only hundred cavalry under his command to inspect the border of the Han and Tang Dynasties.

Taking the importance of military strategy, Suzhou is in the Han Dynasty, and it is also a regiment training state. The regiment training troops have risen to [-] soldiers.Given the lack of horses in the Central Plains, the only hundred cavalry were dispatched by Liu Chengyou from the Forbidden Army to Zhao Kuangyin.

In the northwest of Wokou, Zhao Kuangyin secretly built an army village, called Jingshan Village, as an outpost for observation.To the southeast of the vortex, facing the Yin of the Huai River, is Tushan.

At this time, Zhao Kuangyin climbed up and stood on the horse, looking into the distance, at the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, the cold wind was bleak, and the red tassels in the pocket moved with the wind, but at this time Zhao Kuangyin's eyes were looming mountains and rivers.

"Brother Zhao, you have patrolled here twice in the past month. What's so special about it?" Beside Zhao Kuangyin was a rough-looking young officer.

This person is famous in the party, he is a member of the party, and he was born in a humble family. He was once the slave of the traitor Du Chongwei, and he has always been brave.At that time, Gaozu Liu Zhiyuan's relatives conquered Du Chongwei's rebellion, and when Yuancheng was destroyed, he was captured by the Han army and was later recruited into the army.In the Forbidden Army, relying on his bravery and drive, and catching up with the emperor to promote young men, he also killed several rebels in the process of conquering the river. In four years, he moved to the commander of the Wujie Army Camp.

When hunting in Dunqiu this spring, he was remembered by Liu Chengyou because of his outstanding performance. He was later transferred to Suzhou and served as the commander of the Second Suzhou Army, leading a thousand soldiers.During these years, Liu Chengyou has successively selected people from the forbidden army and sent them to various states and towns.

Zhao Kuangyin was very pleased with the arrival of the party. Although he was illiterate and had a rough manner, he was straightforward and open-minded, with a bold spirit.Especially for his physical strength, he was highly praised by Zhao Kuangyin. In addition, the two were similar in age and similar in temperament. Under Zhao Kuangyin's intention to make friends, the two soon became friends and called brothers and sisters.

At this time, hearing Dangjin's muttering, Zhao Kuangyin couldn't help but smiled, raised his hand and pointed between Wokou and Tushan, and said to himself: "I've been observing the terrain here for a long time, it's a good ambush location!"

Dang Jin looked around with his eyes wide open, then tilted his head and asked, "Brother Zhao is planning to fight here? Unless there is a Tang army passing by!"

Dang Jin just said it in passing, but Zhao Kuangyin nodded on his face: "The vortex is the key point of the waterway. After the battle, it is very possible for Tang soldiers and horses to go up along the Huaihe River. If they pass by this place, there is a possibility of setting up an ambush!"

Hearing what Zhao Kuangyin said was a bit mysterious, Dang Jin shook his head, looked at the south, and pressed the rein of the horse, but he looked eager to try: "After waiting for so long, the war is finally going to start, and we must kill a few more Huai bandits. head"

"Brother Zhao, can you ask Wang Dushuai to take my soldiers from Suzhou as the vanguard of the army?" Dang Jin looked at Zhao Kuangyin expectantly.

When asked, Zhao Kuangyin replied with certainty: "It's almost impossible!"

"Hey!" Sighing, Dang Jin muttered, "Then why is Brother Zhao so active in patrolling this place?"

"I've been in Suzhou for nearly three years. Even if I can't be a vanguard, I should be a guide when the army goes south! The king's capital is handsome, and he consults with the enemy's situation. If he doesn't know, how should he respond?" Zhao Kuangyin said.

Only then did Dang Jin suddenly realize.

Turning his head, Zhao Kuangyin pointed to the southwest direction and said: "Shouzhou is an important town in Huainan. Since ancient times, military strategists have to conquer it, and the northern army can occupy it enough to control the south. As I guessed right, this time the army will definitely pull out Shouzhou first."

As he said that, Zhao Kuangyin's big dark eyes shone with splendor: "This place is only a hundred miles away from Shouchun. Originally, I thought that if I led an elite team to cross the Huaihe River from the shallows, and arrive at dawn and evening, I might be able to raid Shouchun all at once." Fight down!"

Dang Jin's eyes lit up, and he was about to speak, but he heard Zhao Kuangyin continue in a pity tone: "It's a pity, since the old general arrived, it's almost impossible!"

The old general that Zhao Kuangyin was referring to was He Jingzhu, the envoy of the Qinghuai Army in the Southern Tang Dynasty.This veteran, when the Ma brothers were fighting each other last year, was ordered to enter Chu, led the army to help Ma Xie seize power, and was later promoted to the Wuchang Army Jiedu envoy stationed in Ezhou.When the Tang army attacked Chu, Liu Renshan, the deputy envoy of the Wuchang Army's Jiedu, captured Yuezhou and helped to restore it.

The veteran He Jingzhu was transferred to Shouzhou by the Southern Tang court as a Jiedu envoy, stationed in this important town in Huainan.In less than a month after arriving in Shouzhou, He Jingzhu, a veteran general, thoroughly checked and neglected his defenses. Because of the state-owned war, he reorganized the army's defenses, and especially sent troops to patrol the Huai River to check for omissions.

In this way, the strength of Shouzhou's defense was immediately raised.

(End of this chapter)