Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1228 Second Ring
Shao Shude didn't "play" in Zhuozhou for too long.

Tens of thousands of troops marched in, and the thieves were like frightened quails. They had no idea of ​​taking the initiative to attack at all, but kept strengthening the city defenses, hoarding supplies, and getting ready to be beaten.

The legendary Li Ke used his army to disappear.

In fact, if you think about it, you will know that they retreated from Xiangwei, Xing Mingci and other places in late October.Moreover, the speed of retreat was still very slow, and there was even a desire to lure Xia's army to chase after him, and then turn around and fight again, making a comeback in one fell swoop, which showed how unwilling the retreat was.Where can they go now?The main force is probably still in Jinyang.

The so-called reinforcements are at most part of the garrison stationed in Daibei.The other is a small number of elites led by Li Ke himself.It is really overthinking to expect this kind of people to cause trouble on the Youzhou battlefield.

Therefore, Shao Shude's most important work in Zhuozhou was to inspect places, meet officials and powerful men, and collect people's hearts.

In addition, he also led his troops to Qigou Pass to see the scenery of Guanxi - except for a few Jin army rangers, of course there was nothing.

"One infantry commander at Qigouguan, one infantry commander, and two cavalry commanders in Zhuozhou, isn't that too little?" Shao Shude asked Yeli Kecheng and Wang Qianyu, looking at Yeli Kecheng and Wang Qianyu.

This son-in-law has lived in Shao's mansion much longer than at home.As the saying goes, a son-in-law is like a son-in-law, let alone this son-in-law who grew up with him?

Shao Shude had great expectations for Ye Li Kecheng, and although his speed of improvement was not as fast as some geniuses, it was not too slow. Generally speaking, he was an upper-middle-class talent, and he could be entrusted with important tasks in the future.

The older he got, the less Shao Shude trusted outsiders.

The older he got, the more worried Shao Shude was about the drama played out by the imperial guards of the Five Dynasties.Although he knows that thinking like this is a bit worrying, but people's thoughts will change at different ages.He is already trying to restrain this emotion and try to achieve balance.

Yeli Kecheng's relationship with Shao Shude is somewhat similar to Zhang Yongde's relationship with Guo Wei, but the relationship is closer, after all, he is half son and half son-in-law.

"Your Majesty, four thousand horses are enough to defend." Wang Qianyu replied.

"However, we can only defend the important cities, but the wilderness will be left to others." Shao Shude said: "Well, I will let the Gongchen army stay under your command. The specific deployment of troops and the strategy of using them are up to you. "

"Of order." Wang Qianyu replied.

There is nothing wrong with adding troops to him, even wishing for it.What warrior doesn't wish to command more armies?Even if his ability is not enough to command a large army to fight, he just likes it.

"I don't ask you to kill or wound how many bandits or capture many cities." Shao Shude said: "If you hold Zhuozhou firmly and keep the grain road, you will be meritorious."

Of course, there are more than one grain road, but no one would like to lose a grain road for no reason, which means that the flow of materials sent to the destination will drop.

"Of order." Wang Qianyu replied again.

"Yelly soldiers and horse envoys!" Shao Shude cast his eyes on Yeli Kecheng.

"Your Majesty." Yeli Kecheng stepped forward with a heroic and resolute expression on his face.

He has a deep royal brand on his body, and others look at him differently.He has heard too many slanderous and slanderous words, and now he is completely numb and doesn't care - of course there is nothing good in the mouths of warriors, no matter what your identity is, there is really no way to be as knowledgeable as them.

"Do it well." Shao Shude originally wanted to say a lot, but when the words came to his lips, he only changed to these three words: "Ms. Chong is still waiting for you at home."

"Your Majesty, if Li Keyong wants to cross Qigou Pass, he must step over the body of the minister." The words of the saint seemed to have magic power, Ye Li Kecheng became emotional when he heard it, and swore.

Shao Shude nodded, and Xuan asked for two pairs of armor to be given to Yeli Kecheng and Wang Qianyu—originally they were only intended to be gifted to their sons-in-law, but Wang Qianyu stood here, so he didn't want to favor one over the other, so he just put them together Rewarded.

After explaining the affairs, Shao Shude waited for food and grass.

There is no way to do this. From the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain to the sea, it is the vast Hebei Plain.But on this great plain, there are many rivers and lakes.The further north you go, the more lakes there are, and they can even be called densely covered, especially in the states of Cang, Ying, Mo, Zhuo, and You.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, taking advantage of this natural condition, many ponds and lakes were set up to limit the riding of Liao.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the water resources in northern Hebei were more abundant than in the Northern Song Dynasty, so agriculture was able to develop greatly.Correspondingly, there are only a few traffic roads, and the whole line is already in a traffic jam at this time, so we have to wait.

On December [-]th, after waiting for another batch of more than [-] dendrobium grains and beans, Shao Shude ordered to set off and go north to Youzhou.

******
The wind and snow gradually increased.

The main generals of the Qizhou camp gathered in the southwest of Youzhou to welcome the saint.

"How is the situation in the city?" Shao Shude wandered in the wind and snow, as if he had returned to the early morning a few years ago, he took the lead and led the soldiers to attack Yunzhou.

"Three days ago, our army attacked east, south, and west in turn, and the performance of the bandit army was quite satisfactory." Ge Congzhou replied.

"Satisfactory" means that the defenders did not fight to the death, but they were not bad, and they were in the state of clocking in and going to work.

"It's about the same as what I thought." Shao Shude smiled, as if Youzhou was already in his pocket.

He looked around, except for the barracks and trenches, there were farmlands, woods, and villages everywhere—no, the villages had been razed to make room for the barracks.

In later generations, the place where he stood should be at the junction of the second and third ring roads in Beijing.

The location of Youzhou City in the Tang Dynasty has been fully calculated in later generations, because many tombstones were unearthed at that time.

On the tombstone of "Mrs. Zhao, Mrs. Lu Gong of Tang Dynasty" unearthed near Zizhuyuan, Haidian District, it is written "buried ten miles northwest of Fucheng"; "Ancient Plain of Dragon Road, Seven Li Northeast of Jicheng"; there are many other tombstones like this.

So, you don't have to guess at all, people have already told you.Through the location of the unearthed tombstone, the scope of Youzhou City can be completely outlined.

The place where Shao Shude was standing at this time was in the later Taoranting Park in Beijing, outside the southern city wall of Youzhou in the late Tang Dynasty.

"Boom, boom, boom..." The Longxiang army's offensive had just collapsed, and the Xiaojie army followed closely, not giving the enemy a chance to breathe, and launched a second wave of offensive.

Because of the saint's presence, the Xiaojie army had to cheer up.The officers took the lead in the charge and performed more vigorously.

In fact, the wind and snow is still a bit good.

First of all, the bow and crossbow will be greatly affected. Whether the bowstring is not stretched enough, it is easy to break, or the arrow is not shot accurately, it will make the defenders lose a big killing weapon.

Second, it is difficult for them to destroy siege engines.

To destroy this kind of thing, usually go out of the city to fight, and then set fire to it.But in this bullshit weather, you still burn a chicken feather?
Of course, generally speaking, wind and snow will do more damage to the siege side.There is only one reason, it's too fucking cold, I'm going to freeze up in the camp, and I don't feel comfortable nestling in the city at all.Over time, non-combat attrition will be severe—no, many people in the Longchamp Army have actually fallen ill. This has something to do with whether the heat preservation measures are sufficient, but it’s not a big deal, because you shouldn’t live in the wild in winter at all, even if You have makeshift camp.

"How many people are left in Xiaojie Army?" Shao Shude asked.

"Your Majesty, there are still 7000 people in the left chamber, and only [-] people in the right chamber." Huo Liangsi, the envoy of the Xiaojie Army, replied.

Shao Shude sighed and thought to himself: there are so many left?

Huo Liangsi also sighed secretly, after all, the sage still cared about the soldiers, and he would feel sad for the heavy casualties of his sons and daughters.

"How effective is the persuasion to surrender?" Shao Shude asked as he looked at the soldiers from both sides who were fighting repeatedly at the top of the city.

"Occasionally someone would come down the city at night, but not many. About ten people would be scattered in one night." Ge Congzhou replied.

In fact, the occurrence of this situation already shows that the hearts of the people in the city are floating.However, such a thing is impossible in a firmly guarded city. Even if someone wants to leave the city, the officers will strictly control the situation, making people afraid to think carefully.

Those present are all experienced battlefield veterans, with a very keen sense of smell on the battlefield, and the enemy knows what shit they want to shit as soon as they lift their butts.Shao Shude reckoned that Ge Congzhou hadn't seriously attacked Youzhou before, so he was just waiting for him to come.

Well, under Shao Sheng's "wise command", Youzhou City was destroyed.In other words, under Shao Sheng's "Suppression of Tianwei", the defenders had no fighting spirit and Kaesong surrendered.

Ge Congzhou is very politically aware.

No wonder in history Zhu Zhen, Li Yanwei, Shi Shucong, Liu Zhijun, Ding Hui and other generals died and rebelled, and Lao Ge was able to end his military power by himself.

This is a wonderful man!

"The old rule is to prepare with both hands. One is to attack or attack; the other is to persuade surrender at the same time. All kinds of means, I don't need to say more, you can figure it out." Since Ge Congzhou is so knowledgeable, Shao Shude He didn't refuse any more, and ordered on the spot.

"Obey." Ge Congzhou led a group of people and took orders on the spot.

After inspecting the battlefield, Shao Shude returned to the camp, and summoned Shao Siwu to meet him.

"What happened to the Crane Controlling Army?" He asked bluntly.

Shao Siwu tensed up, and blurted out: "This is a long-term plan."

"How to say?" Shao Shude asked blankly.

"Grandfather—" Shao Siwu swallowed.

"There are no fathers and sons in the army!" Shao Shude glared at him.

"Your Majesty." Shao Siwu organized his speech and said, "In this world today, people's hearts are not old, and discipline does not exist. Everyone's heart is like a long grass. Even if they are dormant for a while, they dare to fight as long as they have the opportunity. Put. I think, it is best for the warriors to be in the hands of Shaw. In the future—in the future—”

"I will die in the future." Shao Shude said bluntly.

Shao Siwu's face turned pale, but he still said: "When the second brother ascended the throne, if someone refused to accept and rebelled, I, as the elder brother, can also help out."

It is true that Shao Siwu's reason was aboveboard and sufficient.In other dynasties, it was a taboo to do so, because it would lead to chaos like the Eight Kings Rebellion, but in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, was it really a taboo?

At this time, there are more serious problems than the Eight Kings Rebellion.The two evils are the lesser of the two evils, knowing that at this time, the rituals are broken and the morals are broken, but many military envoys and separatist forces still like to let brothers and sons share the military power.

Among them, there are negative examples, and there are also positive examples. In fact, it is gambling.

Of course Shao Shude knew the pros and cons of it, and after listening to his son's words, he was noncommittal and pondered for a long time.

Shao Siwu anxiously waited for the verdict of fate.

But he wasn't very scared, he had already discussed with his father at the beginning, he had no idea about the throne, as long as his second brother could tolerate him, so what if he was honestly a prince?
"There are too many miscellaneous people in the Crane Control Army." Shao Shude sighed, and said: "Those familiar tribal soldiers, except for the strong and strong, are all scattered. After defeating Youzhou, I let the two armies of Chishui and Gongchen merge To control the crane army, Fan Helai will be the envoy, and Cao Yijin will be the deputy envoy. After the army is reorganized, it may go out of Linyu Pass to attack the west of Liaoxi, and return to the camp in Andong."

Shao Siwu didn't know whether to cry or laugh.However, he didn't expect too much at first, and such an ending seems to be good.

(End of this chapter)