Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1204 Choice
On August 27, the third year of Jianji, Xia Jun had already rested in Macheng County for a day and two nights.

In this short period of two days, they successively conquered three cities of Macheng County, Qianjinye, and Liucheng Army, and captured and beheaded more than [-] people.If you count the two or three hundred killed by Liu Zhijun on the road, it would already be over a thousand.

much?Actually not much at all.It's unbelievable that there is such a small force in the frontier military state.

Of course, we all know that the wars in the north have been fierce these years, and the Great Xia has conquered the city and destroyed many towns.As the most stubborn feudal town Hedong in the North, it is natural to help the little brothers to stand out, so a large number of soldiers and horses were sent to the battlefield and were constantly consumed, including Youzhou soldiers and horses.

In addition, the most important thing is that Li Cunzhang took Lu Longjun away, leaving the Pingzhou garrison empty. Now those who have a little strength are probably in Linyu Pass. There are still thousands of soldiers and horses there, but there are many mixed in them. Tutuan countryman, the combat effectiveness is just like that.

Youzhou is following the old path of Li Keju, Li Kuangwei, and Li Kuangchou.

At the beginning of the morning on the 27th, Chishui Army envoy Fan He sent Kang Huaiying to lead 500 people to attack Lulong County, while he himself supervised craftsmen in Qianjinye City to make weapons and armor to replenish military supplies.

The small town was captured on the night of the 25th.Fan He personally led the team, killed more than a hundred enemies, and easily captured the most important weapon manufacturing base in Youzhou. The defense force was so weak that it made people dumbfounded.In contrast, the Liucheng army, which was conquered during the day on the 26th, had [-] troops left behind - also beheaded to death.

Nearly [-] soldiers and horses have landed, and the current losses are extremely slight, and they are still taking advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness to attack Lulong and Shicheng counties directly, and the offensive is very fierce.

"Warrior from Youzhou, why do you like exotic weapons such as Ties and Guduo so much?" Qian Jinye, Fan He picked up a Ties and tried it, and said with a smile.

Li Siyuan loves to use irons, Li Cunxiao loves to use irons, Zhou Dewei also loves to use irons...

"And these swords are all the Sogdians love to use, right?" Fan He asked curiously, picking up a scimitar with a rather large curvature.

The machete is long but curved, which requires considerable skill and craftsmanship.Hedong is now using a large number of soldiers from the three tribes of Shatuo and the nine surnames of Zhaowu. It is not surprising that these weapons appear.

"Send an order to the big and small foremen in the workshop that all the money seized in Macheng County will be rewarded to you. Give me long and short weapons to work day and night, and make arrow armor. If you do a good job, I will reward you generously." Fan He Said.

"Obey." Immediately, a soldier went over to deliver the order.

Fan He picked up the new armor in the workshop, or the old armor that was sent back from various places for repair, and he felt happy.

In his opinion, among the four prefectures in Tanjiyingping, none of the places is worth as much as Qianjinye.For their army, which has gone deep into the enemy's rear and is extremely scarce in all kinds of supplies, being able to get a large number of weapons and armor to arm itself is simply a timely help.

Fighting a war requires a lot of arrows, weapons and armor will be damaged, and tools used in daily life will also be consumed. It is unimaginable without supplements, after all, relying on robbing is extremely unstable.Once you can't grab it and are surrounded by people, it can basically be declared over.

"Collect food, horse mules, and carts as soon as possible, the more the better." Fan He also ordered: "Don't be polite to the Yan people, just do what you have to do, just be careful."

If it is too pedantic because of the enemy's food, it is doomed to fail.Now Fan He can also imagine why the reputation of the Flying Dragon Army is so bad. In fact, their reputation is not bad at the beginning, but their tactics are doomed to plunder, and resistance will inevitably be encountered in the process of plundering. It's a killer.

Over time, military discipline is impossible to maintain.Even if Yuhou at all levels is to clean up discipline, he can only pretend. If he really wants to be serious, he will be killed.

"Come on, let's go to the pier!" Fan He said with a wave of his hand.

******
The pier is in the southeast of Macheng County. It is not very big. It seems that it can only moor several large ships at the same time.

Yesterday morning, there were dozens of defenders at the pier.When they saw Xia Jun's brigade approaching, they scattered.The biggest role of these people is not to guard the docks, but to maintain order and collect taxes, nothing more.

There are many laborers on the pier, all of whom were arrested.Their job is to help unload cargo, that is, food, weapons, armor, wound medicine, tarpaulins and other materials on many ships that are still anchored offshore.

In addition, there is another team that set off yesterday.Go along the wet water to the vicinity of the estuary and be responsible for pulling fibers for the ships.

Strictly speaking, in the case of strong southeast wind, fiber pulling is not necessarily necessary.But at the moment when summer and autumn alternate, the wind direction sometimes changes, or there is no wind at all on a certain day, and the river itself has certain bends, so to be on the safe side, a special tracker is still needed to be safe.

"Macheng County can be lost, and Qianjinye can also be lost under extremely unfavorable circumstances, but the wharf cannot be lost." Fan He looked at the slightly dilapidated wharf and was filled with emotion.

He could tell that the pier was not being used much.Rotten wood can be seen everywhere, and the boards are broken in many places, and they are not repaired much, so they are just put there and make do with it.

In the storage yard near the wharf, the grass grows tall, and there is only a small area where goods are often placed, and obvious indentations can be seen.

The houses are also dilapidated, and the people have already fled.The furnishings in the house are filled with a stale atmosphere, and there are even some shortages.

I heard that there are only fishing boats in the port of Macheng occasionally, and it seems that this statement is true.Even more, fishing boats go into the sea from Le'an Town near the southern estuary.

Most of Machengpu's business is actually inland river transportation, which is mainly for military supplies in the north.

Le'an Town is a military town, which has been abandoned. It is the later Laoting County, which was very prosperous in the Jin Dynasty.

In the sixth year of Xiankang, "Zhao Wanghu ordered the people of the seven prefectures of Si, Ji, Qing, Xu, You, and Yong to take three out of five, and two out of four. The old soldiers of Heye City were full of 50 and had 100 ships. From the river to the sea, one million dendrobiums are transported to the city of Le'an...to strike swallows."

Shihu sent people to transport 100 million dendrobium grain to Le'an City, intending to attack Yan.They also wantonly recruited 50 troops, which is a bit frenzied.Take three out of five and two out of four. This kind of temporary farmer doesn't know what fighting power there is.

Let's not talk about the war between Shihu and the Murong clan, but at that time, the port conditions in Le'an were indeed quite good.

After the establishment of the former Tang Dynasty, Le'an County in the province was merged into Macheng, a coastal county was withdrawn to the inland, and more emphasis was placed on inland river (wet water) transportation.Bohai sea transportation is limited to starting from Cangzhou, floating north to Liaodong, and providing military rations to the Pinglu army.

Fan He had carefully studied this period of history before coming here, and knew it very well.And he also focused on the two ports of Le'an Town and Linyuguan—yes, Linyuguan had a port since the Jin Dynasty.

Fan He looked left and right, and he had the urge to send troops to conscript and repair the port.It's just that the population of Pingzhou is too small, and the place is so big that it may be difficult to grasp it in a short time.

"Military envoy, General Zhu sent someone to report that a fleet from Lushun appeared in the open sea." All of a sudden, some personal soldiers came to report in a hurry.

"Oh? King Zhao is here, where are they?" Fan He asked with joy in his heart.

"It is said that they are already in the southern border of Yutian County." The soldier replied, "But King Zhao himself is out to sea."

Yutian County?That is the county of Jizhou.It seems that they landed directly in Jizhou.

Fan He suddenly felt a bit pained.According to the original plan, the fleet from Liaodong went straight to Pingzhou and Jizhou to capture these two places, while they went to Youzhou to land and penetrate the enemy's core.

But a strong wind changed everything, they were blown away, some of them landed in Pingzhou, and there was no news about the other part.It is a bit embarrassing to meet King Zhao's troops here now.

"Send someone to meet you." Fan He waved his hand and said.

******
Shao Siwu disembarked near Le'an Town, surrounded by Liu Wei, Wang Jiao, Gao Youqing and other generals.

Cao Yijin brought him a few steed horses, followed by three thousand warriors, most of whom were warriors brought from Dunhuang, and now they are directly under Shao Siwu's troops.

He glanced back at the sparkling sea.

Fifty or sixty ships, large and small, gathered on the sea surface, lowered the bow and tail anchors, and waited silently to enter the port.

Some daring captains even tried to steer the ship up against the water and head inland.However, they were quickly dissuaded, and they moored in the nearby river channel and began to unload their cargo on the east bank.

The auxiliary soldiers began to look for woods and cut wood to build fences.

"Xi Lulu..." The horse was carefully hoisted off the deck by a net bag woven with hemp rope.

War horses have always galloped on land. This time when they crossed the sea by boat, they had long been dizzy. Now they experienced the feeling of "leaping" from the air and landed.

Shao Siwu and the generals laughed heartily.

If it is a ship with a low side, the horse will just step on the pedal and walk over.But the deck of this ship is very high, and there is no pier nearby, so they can only be hoisted down one by one.

This is the difficulty of landing operations.Chaos, chaos, chaos!

"The Chishui army is probably going to flatten the prefecture." Shao Siwu sighed, "The prefectural city is empty, and this is almost a credit to them for nothing. Let's go to Linyu Pass and tear down the city."

Linyuguan is to the east, and Jizhou is to the west, which means that the troops departing from Liaodong will be divided into two halves.But Linyu Pass is indeed more dangerous, and it cannot be beaten.

With thousands of troops, if they were given time to react, they might recruit native peasants and young men from the Tibetan tribe. Leaving such a large group of enemies behind was undoubtedly a huge threat.

There is no way, the Chishui army won the easy-to-eat meat, and the Guide and Longwu armies can only gnaw hard bones.

"Since Your Highness has this intention, so what if we go on the offensive? You guys can't wait a long time ago." Cao Yijin, the "big licking dog", said.

"If you are not prepared to attack, it is still possible to win. If you fail, retreat and lure him to attack. Pingzhou fell, and I don't believe that Li Cunhao is not in a hurry." Liu Wei expressed cautious optimism.

Shao Siwu looked at Wang Jiao again, and asked, "What does the capital think?"

"Liu Junhao is right. If he can't pull it out suddenly, he can show his weakness. In fact, the whole Youzhou is very empty, and Li Cunhao is more anxious than us. If he doesn't want to be punished by Li Keyong, it is inevitable to send troops. Perhaps, Our army can ambush in the middle, overwhelm its army, kill its generals, and then calmly collect Linyu Pass to relieve this worry." Wang Jiao said.

"Since everyone says so, let's attack Linyu Pass eastward." Shao Siwu said after making up his mind.

(End of this chapter)