Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 20 Where to Go

On the seventh day of September in the fifth year of Qianfu, the Tiande Army sent some people to fight under Shanyang City. After the war book was shot, there was no response.Looking at the banner with the character "Xue" hanging at the top of the city, Xue Zhiqin should still be in the city. With his violent temper, it is not easy to endure the challenges of others and be a tortoise.

It can also be seen from here that the Shuozhou Army should not come out again.Hao Zhenwei had to make plans early. Fengzhou and Zhenwu could not send rations or supplies. They were alone now, and everything was consumed at one time, such as weapons, equipment, arrows, food, draft animals and even people. .

It is unclear how long Shao Shude can support the military rations. Considering that they have not been seized before, the rations have not been particularly smooth. It is estimated that they will last for a month.So, with these thousands of people, can they capture Shuozhou City?Disaster!Maybe you can try it, but the chances of success are small, and the loss of troops will definitely be very large.

"Everyone says that Datong's military city is strong. Don't you know that Shanyang City is an ancient Mayi city, and it is also solid as a golden soup? Lieutenant General Shao, we meet again." Song Le appeared out of nowhere, cupped his hands, and said politely.

"Mr. Song is here." Shao Shude returned the salute and said, "The field battle is still successful, but I'm afraid it won't work."

"General Hao Du naturally doesn't want to attack the fortress." Song Le lowered his voice and said: "Yesterday, there was news that Guochang Zike first attacked the military city of Kelan, lured the imperial troops to rescue it, and then went to the east of the military city of Kelan. Honggu defeated the official army, and Cao Xiang, the envoy, was forced to return to Jinyang, leaving only part of the troops between Xin and Dai to confront the rebels."

"This..." Shao Shude was a little surprised, and asked quickly, "How did you lose?"

"Cao Xiang is Jiedu in the east of the river, but most of the troops and horses he brought over belonged to foreign towns. They did not obey the orders and refused to die. They were tired from the long march and could not prevent the outstanding troops. They were defeated. Now the defeated army has retreated to Taiyuan Prefecture, Jinyang City The door is closed, and there are rumors that Cao Dashuai has been killed by the rebel army, I don't know if it is true or not."

"Does General Hao know all about this military situation?"

"Of course I know. I also followed the military envoy to hear and hear such confidential matters." Song Le looked at Shao Shude with strange eyes, as if to say that I had no scouts and no detailed work, and the news was of course someone else's. Handed over second-hand goods.

"If you have Shanyang City at this time, it will be fine. You can attack and retreat and defend. Li Guochang and his son are coming from the whole army. With the strong city in their hands, they can't do anything about it." In fact, Shao Shude was right. Shanyang was called Mayi in ancient times, facing Mayichuan in the south, and located in a small basin in the upper reaches of the Sanggan River in the north of Xingbei. In ancient times, all troops were assembled here, and the agricultural products were relatively abundant.If the Tiande army gathers up all the food in the four fields according to this, then closes the city gate, and guards it for a few months, there will be no problem at all.

"Impossible. After the victory of the Battle of Honggu, Li Keyong has led his troops to Daizhou. While putting pressure on Taiyuan, he is ready to reinforce Weizhou at any time. It can be described as majestic. Under this situation, Xue Zhiqin lost his heart. If he is crazy, he will surrender. And if he doesn’t surrender, can we fight?” Song Le shook his head and said, “For today’s plan, it is still three sides to attack. In Zhouzhen, the south road is dominated by soldiers from the towns of Hedong, Zhaoyi, Zhongwu, Yicheng, and Heyang, and the three roads are encircled, so what if Li Thief dies!"

Indeed, if the towns work together, don't paddle, and fight well, then Li Guochang and his son will be defeated long ago, no matter how good they are.

But the difficulty is here. Youzhou Town has not moved for a long time, and the West Road is also paddling.Li Guochang has few soldiers, but the victory lies in the fact that he is united and dedicated to one place.

"Then ask Judge Song, where should our army go next?"

"The best strategy is to go north and join with Qi Bizhang and Helianduo. However, Yunzhou is barren and unable to support the army, and Qibi and Helian will also find it difficult to support our army. At that time, the army will have no surplus food and will collapse without fighting. policy, it must be done as a last resort.”

"Zhongce returned to the Zhenwu Army under the pretext of insufficient military resources. First, we obtained one or two plots of land, and then we made plans after watching. However, it is very likely that the imperial court will approve it, and General Hao Du may not dare to take this risk."

"The best strategy is to go south to Lanzhou, which is not the main attack direction of Li Guochang and his son, and can also supply a large amount of military supplies. The mountains are vertical and horizontal, the terrain is complex, and there is a lot of room for manoeuvre. Once the war between Xin and generations is clear, our army can leave Lanzhou and head north. , and attacked Shuozhou again, and I can explain it to the court."

"Which strategy will Hao Du choose?"

"Of course it's the best policy. This official made a statement to Qiu Shijun. After Qiu Shijun discussed with the capital, he felt that it was more appropriate to go south to Lanzhou."

The word "properly" is used more delicately.Going north to Yunzhou, without food or clothing, it is hard to say whether Helian and Qibi are friends or enemies.If the family saw the opportunity to fight the Tiande army, and then ran away, you occupy Fengzhou, I occupy Zhenwu, and the Shatuo people are connected and echo each other, who are you going to talk to?
It is even more impossible to return to Zhenwu Army or even Fengzhou. First of all, the supervising army dare not agree, and secondly, everyone came out to fight to death, but they did not get any credit or wealth, so they went back like this?Therefore, going south to Lanzhou is almost the only viable option.Even the reasons are ready-made, rescue the Lan army!

"Judge Song, have you made a decision yet?" Shao Shude approached quietly and asked in a low voice.Having been in the army for many years, he also knew that some things should not be told indiscriminately, and some news should not be spread indiscriminately. Yang Xiu's story was too famous, and Shao Shude didn't want to end up like this.

"Dutou tends to go south to Lanzhou." Song Le continued to "spread the news indiscriminately", only to hear him say: "Yesterday, General Hao Du sent scouts south to Caochengchuan to investigate the military situation, and there should be news in the past two days. ."

Caocheng River is about 160 miles away from Shuozhou, and if you march, you can reach it in about eight days.To the west of Caochengchuan, there is a Zhelu army city, which was once broken by Li Keyong, but after Li retreated, the defeated soldiers ran back and controlled it.

About a hundred miles to the south is the Kelan Military City, which was attacked by Li Keyong a while ago, but the soldiers resisted stubbornly and only allowed him to break through the outer city.

Of course, it seems now that Li Keyong may not really want to storm the military city, but encircle the point for reinforcements. The real goal is the soldiers from Hedong, Zhongwu and other towns who came to relieve the siege. In the end, he succeeded, and the two towns were defeated. , Cao Xiang, who was recruiting envoys and envoys of Hedong Jiedu on behalf of the north and north, returned to Jinyang in fear, and his prestige plummeted.

Soldiers are actually very realistic.

Cao Xiang took Zhaoyi's own troops to Jinyang to take office, and served as the commander of Hedong, one of the three famous towns in the world. As soon as he came up, he strictly enforced the military law, cut the mess with a quick knife, and stabilized the situation by killing.

But the dissatisfaction of the soldiers was also accumulating. This time Honggu was defeated, and even if Cao Xiang escaped, it would be difficult to control the situation.Zhaoyi, Zhongwu, Heyang, Yicheng, Yiwu and other soldiers and horses in the outer towns gathered in Jinyang would be ghosts if they listened to him, and even the soldiers and horses in Hedong Township probably did not move much.

Miserable, really miserable!
On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, as Song Le said, Hao Zhenwei, the head of the capital, summoned the generals to discuss matters, and decided to lead the army south to Caocheng River on the grounds of lack of food.The military envoy had no objection, and the others were also indispensable, so it was settled.

In the early morning of the eleventh day, the troops packed up and retreated in turn.

As the deputy general of the military guard, Shao Shude and the others were not the first to leave. Therefore, after having lunch in the camp, they marched with the main force of the second group.At this time, there were still some soldiers and horses left in the camp to monitor the situation in Shuozhou City. Xue Zhiqin seemed to have broken his courage, or he was afraid of cheating and did not dare to pursue it, which facilitated the actions of the Tiande army.

The operation to Caocheng River went well.At this time, Li Keyong's main force had returned to Bingdaizhou and was confronting the imperial army.He is still under great pressure now. The old nests in Yunzhou and Shuozhou in the north are attacked by the Tang army, and Weizhou in the east is also facing the harassment of troops and horses in Youzhou town. It only needs the second will of the court to reach Fan Yang.

Therefore, it is really difficult for them to draw out how many mobile troops now. Every soldier is very precious and must be used together.And this may be the reason why the Tiande army has only seen a small group of Li Jun soldiers and horses along the way in the past few days. They are more of a surveillance role, rather than a harassment or attack.

On the [-]th day of September, the Tiande army suddenly changed direction and headed towards Ningwu County.

This county is under the rule of Shuozhou, but whether it is in the hands of the imperial court, no one can say for sure.However, the warriors of the Tiande Army could no longer manage so much, and directly dispatched more than [-] elite soldiers to take down this poor county town.

When Wufu entered the city, one could imagine what kind of virtue it was.

Even with the restraint of the generals, the soldiers did not dare to hurt others, but looting was inevitable.Many soldiers even broke into houses and raped women.

All of Shao Shude's men were itching to see it, and they also wanted to rape and loot.Under the values ​​of this era, this is nothing at all, eating people is very common, you tell me that it is not good to rape women?Believe it or not, the warriors hacked you to death?
There are people who have no tomorrow today, maybe they will die in the next moment, you want me to be a good person, a saint, fuck you!

Shao Shude persuaded them to stop, although he himself was a little impulsive.

The temptation to release the evil of human nature is not generally great.Especially these warriors who are on the edge of life and death all day long and are under great mental pressure. Many generals tempt the sergeants with slaughtering and looting, inspiring them to fight bravely.

Takefu, I feel a bit of a battlefield mental illness.

There was chaos in Ningwu County.

Goods, grain, cattle and sheep, the warriors wanted everything. Facing the high butcher's knife, the gentry of Ningwu County wisely chose not to resist and let them take the only survival materials.These days, Li Guochang's soldiers have come and plundered, and now the soldiers of the imperial court have also come and plundered. Are there any good people in this world?

On September 23, because they were afraid of Li Jun's sudden appearance, the Tiande Army, which had looted a large amount of goods and food, set off again.They headed southwest, while protecting the baggage, while keeping a close eye on the surrounding situation. They stopped and stopped like this. On September [-], they finally arrived outside the city of the Zelupt Army on the western edge of Caochengchuan.

There are a few more than 400 soldiers in the city, like a frightened bird, when they see a large army coming, they immediately run away.It wasn't until the Tiande army sent rangers to catch up and told them that they were soldiers and horses from the imperial court that these bastards ran back again, and immediately cried out about Li Jun's brutality. Food, everyone is really hungry.

The Zhanlu Army has been abolished!This was Shao Shude's first impression when he saw these people.

This unit was originally set up to resist the steppe cavalry from the south between Yun and Shuo, who plundered the hinterland of Hedong. As a result, they were beaten by Li Keyong, and they turned out to be like this.No, maybe before Li Keyong came over, they were already dead. Li Keyong served in the Datong Army for a long time, so he should be clear about these people, otherwise he would not be the first to attack them.

The Tiande Army, can't be the decadent appearance of the Zhelu Army, so take it as a warning!

(End of this chapter)