Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 174
October [-]th, the first year of Guangqi, Fuping County, Jingzhao Prefecture.

Time flies like water, two years have passed since I left Fuping last time.The people in Guanzhong also lived a peaceful life for nearly three years.In the past three years, the saint spent most of his time in the middle of Sichuan, and he did not return with the newly recruited [-] magical strategies until the palace was roughly repaired.

The people in Guanzhong have lived in peace for three years, and in two of them, they don’t have to support the army or hundreds of officials, and the taxation is relatively light. Compared with the states in the Guandong, how lucky they are!

It seems to be paying off now.

Six thousand Jingyuan troops stationed in Xianyang, seven thousand Binning troops stationed in Dongwei Bridge, and eight thousand Fengxiang troops stationed in Weibei. A total of 1000 people were supported by the people of the counties near Chang'an.If this is nothing, the weather has been good for the past three years, and the people's life is not bad. The key is that the discipline of the soldiers and horses in these three towns is poor.Looting goods, women, cattle and sheep, almost everything, if you dare not follow, just cut it off with a single knife, the people will suffer, but there is nothing they can do.

They even want to rob the emperor, what's wrong with robbing you little common people?
There are also 3 Shence troops in Chang'an City. Their military discipline is not bad, but even the traffickers and pawns know that they cannot fight, and they might be defeated if they go into battle.

Good military discipline cannot be fought, and those who can fight are poor. The people in Guanzhong repeatedly complained about committing crimes, and at the same time secretly hated Tian Lingzi and Wang Chongrong.The price of salt has risen to [-] yuan a bucket, how are you doing these days?

"Judge Chen, I have traveled around the villages, and the people's life is not bad. It has been peaceful for three years, and it is full of vitality." Shao Shude still lives in Li Kan's farm. Not affected by the war.

People these days are not afraid of heavy taxes, but of disorder.The exploitation is heavy but there is order, and they can barely survive. If there is no order, the separation of wives and children, the destruction of the family, and the death of the family are just a matter of leisure.Not to mention living and working in peace and contentment, it would be nice to see people.

"This is all the virtue of the king. The eight counties of Fuping were not affected by the Huangchao Rebellion. Now that the Dingnan army is here, no one dares to provoke. The elders in Guanzhong hope that the king is like the rain. If the king opens a mansion in Fuping With the establishment of the Yamen, the eight counties will no longer be owned by the imperial court, and the people and officials will gather and follow them, and they will all serve the king as the master." Chen Cheng said.

"Judge Chen is just joking." Shao Shude shook his head, and said, "The court is still there, how can it crack the earth?"

Jingzhao Mansion plus the two prefectures of Tonghua, there may have been gold merchants and other places in the past, these more than 30 counties have always been the private land of the imperial court.The annexation of your feudal towns to each other is not that serious, but the annexation of counties directly under the imperial court is very troublesome, and it is really possible to face the siege of the towns.

"How's the food collection going?" Shao Shude asked.

"The surrounding counties are all collecting grain, grass, and teachers. In a few days, they will be gathered in Fuping." Chen Cheng replied.

Thirty-three thousand troops are stationed in various places.The main force of the Iron Forest Army and the Iron Cavalry Army are in Fuping, the Yi Cong Army is between Fuping and Sanyuan, and the Jinglue Army is in the southeast of Fuping.In this battle, Fuping is the general grain platform, and the counties have to recruit tens of thousands of strong men to help transport grain, grass, and equipment.The pack horses, draft horses, and carts prepared by Guanzhong Prefecture County from Suizhou before were conscripted by the Dingnan Army again, which is ridiculous.

"What is Wang Chongrong doing?"

"There is not much movement, but the number of troops in Hexi has been increased, and there seems to be signs of attacking Tongzhou."

"What about Li Ke?"

"Still preparing troops and horses, there is no sign of leaving the army."

"Send someone to tell Wang Chongrong not to come to Fuping. The people here help the Dingnan army to raise food and grass, and transfer supplies. It is very hard work, so don't come here to fight the autumn wind."

"As ordered."

This is my territory, that's probably what it means.The eight counties in the north of Jingzhao Mansion are old acquaintances with Xia Sui's soldiers and horses. If I send donations to them, I have an obligation to protect them.If Wang Chongrong dared to let the soldiers come and plunder, the Dingnan Army would dare to fight them first.

The "15 army" used by Li Ke came, and if he dared to loot, he would also hit him!It's not that the Hedong army and the five Hu people in the north have never fought in the Qianfu period, and their combat effectiveness is just like that.

"Three days later, a certain relative will lead the Iron Forest Army and Iron Cavalry Army to Gaoling south, and meet Li Changfu and Zhu Mei for a while." Shao Shude sat down, looked at the map in front of him, and said: "Fengxiang Army is in Weibei, if you dare Raise troops to resist, don't you know about Meng Kai's past?"

In the battle of Shengao Post, the Tielin army defeated more than ten thousand men of Meng Kai, chased him to the north, and drove him down the river.Li Changfu's [-] people are stationed here, if they persist in their obsession and resist stubbornly, Shao Shude doesn't mind fighting with them.

"Commander, Li Changfu and the others were already timid before they dared to advance eastward, and they should be in hesitation at this time. They only need to be frightened a little, and they will retreat. They may not dare to fight."

"Some people don't shed tears when they see the coffin. They have to do it once to know how powerful they are." Shao Shude said: "In the towns west of Beijing, the sergeants dare to fight, although they may not be able to win. In the past, there were only tens of thousands of people, but they dared to attack Chang’an, that’s 15 hives.”

"Then we have to fight!" Chen Cheng sighed.Although winning is highly probable, as long as they are on the battlefield, there is no sure victory. He sincerely hopes that Li Changfu and others will retreat in the face of difficulties, and then they can enter Chang'an and kill Tian Lingzi's rebellious party.

"How's the immigration thing going?"

"Reporting to Commander-in-Chief, there are many people fleeing with their families in the counties of Jingzhao Prefecture. Fuping Horse Company is already sending people to collect them and send them to Xiazhou, and then go to Lingzhou to reclaim wasteland. Tongzhou and other horse companies are also Yes, as the army gathered, the common people panicked, and the Fuping Horse Walk gathered more than a thousand households within ten days." Chen Cheng replied.

The matter of Ma Xing is under the control of Pei Tong, but he has sneaked to Chang'an recently.The horse shop over there is closed, but there are still some things to take care of.Chen Cheng is the judge of the Tielin Army, these matters have nothing to do with him, but he has a lot of thoughts, and he usually pays attention to them in case the commander asks questions, and today he did.

"After this time, we have to find a way to make Binning submit. Going from Qingzhou to Lingzhou can save a lot of roads." Shao Shude said: "When Lingzhou is successful in reclaiming land, a certain one will form Feng'an Army and go south from Lingzhou , regain Huizhou, and open up this area."

"Commander, if Huizhou is captured, the three towns of Binning, Jingyuan, and Fengxiang will be in constant panic and will join forces to fight against it."

"So we have to let Binning submit first." Shao Shude smiled, and said, "Don't blame me for being cruel. Those who achieve great things don't care about trivial matters. Zhu Mei fought side by side with me in the past to defeat Zhu Wen. Now it belongs to the enemy and us, and we are already inseparable." By myself. General Zhao Jian of Tongsai Town, isn’t he a good choice for the commander of the Binning Festival?”

"The commander-in-chief is wise. To go to one of the three towns, we can only rely on the two towns of Fengxiang and Jingyuan, and we are powerless to resist." Chen Cheng also said with a smile: "In this battle, Zhu Mei will be captured and killed. Tian Lingzi rebelled against the party, and everyone will win Kill him."

Zhu Mei, like Zhuge Shuang, was born in the Pang Xun Rebellion Army.But he seemed to be more loyal than people like Li Changfu. If possible, Shao Shude didn't want to kill him, just drive him out of power, and let the three states of Binning and Ningxia only follow Xiazhou's lead.

But whether Zhao Jian is easy to control is hard to say.When she was in love at the bedside, Yuniang blew her pillow wind several times, but Shao Shude was not completely at ease with Zhao Jian.But it doesn't matter, as long as Lingzhou succeeds in cultivating land and has a material basis to support long-term warfare, he can gather a large number of troops there, and Zhao Jian has to obey even if he refuses.

After struggling for so many years, it finally became a climate in the northwest, and Marshal Shao was very satisfied.

The last years of the dynasty when the vassals were divided and the last years of the unified dynasty were completely different concepts.The former still has armed forces, and they are even capable of fighting. There is a town in every few states, with thousands to tens of thousands of soldiers, and they are all professional warriors.In the last years of the latter, the history books are usually accompanied by the four-character evaluation of "abolition of military equipment". The rebel army can easily sweep across a province or even several provinces, and careerists can easily make a fortune.

But not in the late Tang Dynasty!Shao Shude sighed.How does Yelu Deguang's more than [-] cavalry compare with the tens of thousands of mounted infantry in the Qing Dynasty?He was beaten to the point of running away on a camel, and even if he entered Kaifeng, he would not be able to become an emperor.The arrogant soldiers of the various towns can only plan slowly, first settle the towns in the northwestern part of Beijing of the Shence Army, and then plot other things.

"Continue to collect refugees and send them to Xiazhou. There are only two things to do in this expedition. One is to kill Tian Lingzi and help Ximen's family. The two are to collect refugees, and the latter is more important. Guanzhong's civilian households still have some family backgrounds. Go all the way Xiazhou, we don’t need to pay all the food. If it’s really not enough, send donations to big households.” Shao Shude finally ordered.

On October [-], Shao Shude left Fuping with more than [-] soldiers from the Tielin Army and Cavalry Army and headed straight for Weibei.

Encountered two waves of court envoys along the way.The first wave of edicts ordered him to serve the king and attack Wang Chongrong, but Shao Shude refused to follow the edict.The second wave of envoys came again, and dismissed the envoys such as the observation and disposal of the military, the envoys to appease the Pingxia party, the envoys to abdicate, and the envoys to supervise and pasture in Yinchuan. The title of the king of Lingwu County was also deprived.

Shao Shude just smiled and gave the angel a gift.With the current situation of the six states that are difficult to determine, no one dares to oppose it.After entering Chang'an, no matter how the imperial court dismissed him, he would have to add back one item at a time, or even give more.

On October 23, the army arrived in Sanyuan County, and the county magistrate Liang Zhixia led the officials and gentry out of the city to meet them.

On the 26th, he arrived at the front line of Jingyang and Gaoling, set up a camp, and invited Li Changfu, the Fengxiang Army, to fight.At the same time, Wang Chongrong also took action, personally leading an army of more than [-] to attack Tongzhou.Inspector Guo Zhang led the troops to fight, but was defeated and Tongzhou fell.

Shao Shude was a little surprised when he got the news.Why are warriors these days so brave, not only Guo Zhang, but also many others, who insist on leaving the city to fight in the field, so confident?Now he hopes that Li Changfu will also be more confident, stop guarding the camp, and come out to fight with him, everyone will fight face to face, and the winner will be decided, wouldn't it be great?

On October 28, Zhu Mei, who was stationed at Dongwei Bridge, led his troops to Gaoling and joined Li Changfu. The two armies totaled 5000 people.The Dingnan Army stationed 2000 people in the northwest of Gaoling, led by Shao Shude himself, the left and right hatchbacks of the Yicong Army stationed in the southeast of Jingyang, and the Jinglue Army was stationed in the northeast of Gaoling.

The time has come for a decisive battle.

On the 29th, Zhu Mei sent an envoy to the camp of the Dingnan Army to invite Shao Shude to have a talk.

(End of this chapter)