Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 743 Ruying Road

In the festival hall in Changshe County of Xuzhou Li, people came and went, and it was a busy scene.

"Your Majesty has an order. From today onwards, the troops will be abolished." Pang Shigu publicly announced to the gathered generals.

Pull out the team and cut, that is, if a team of sergeants loses the team, the whole team will be cut.

There is no doubt that this is a harsh military discipline, which has been rare since ancient times.At the same time, this is also a double-edged sword. While motivating soldiers to fight bravely to win the victory, it is also easy to cause a large number of deserters.

In the early battles against Huang Chao, Qin Zongquan, Zhu Xuan, Zhu Jin, Shi Pu, and Luo Hongxin, the advantages of this trick outweighed the disadvantages, and it played a positive role.Of course, there were quite a few deserters who had lost their leaders at that time. They were afraid of being beheaded, and they didn't want to return to the camp after the battle, so they fled one after another.For this reason, Zhu Quanzhong had to tattoo on the faces of the sergeants, so that they would be arrested by the prefectures and counties as soon as they appeared, and finally forced these people to seek refuge in enemy towns or become bandits, which became hidden dangers.

Now he encountered a new situation.

The war with Shao Shude was long-term. It started in the second half of the second year of Dashun (890), and it is now the seventh year. I don’t know how many team leaders have died. After the Daodu Rebellion, the soldiers fled in all directions, as if they were hiding in the countryside.

After Pang Xun's incident, the silver knives scattered and took refuge one after another. The addition of these regular warriors greatly enhanced Pang Xun's strength.

Qi Bizhang and Liang Hanyong, one from the west and the other from the east, broke into the hinterland of the Liang people many times.

Today, Zhu Quanzhong finally decided to abolish this harsh military order that has done more harm than good.

"I'll tell you this when I go back. There must be no mistakes. In Jinxiang County, Shanzhou, more than a hundred soldiers took refuge in the bandit general Liang Hanyong, and practiced horseback riding in Puzhou. The King of Liang was furious when he heard the news." Pang Shigu said.

Pang Shigu has one advantage, he executes orders without compromise.In the past, he was very much in favor of pulling out the team, but when Zhu Quanzhong's attitude changed, he changed accordingly.No wonder Liang Wang would rather hand over the army to him than Zhu Zhen and others.

"This matter is over, there are a few more things to do." Pang Shigu signaled everyone to sit down, turned his eyes to Dai Siyuan, and said: "General Dai, your troops have fought against the thief general Qi Bizhang several times, why are you in vain?"

This is actually an overstatement. In fact, Dai Siyuan is not without success.

When Qi Bizhang's troops collected food, they were often scattered, and the two sides sometimes met unexpectedly, and there were many small and medium-scale battles. He also won several times, killing and wounding more than a thousand enemy troops, but recently Well, 2000 people were eaten. Overall, Dai's Flying Dragon Army lost more than 2000 soldiers, and Qibi's Flying Dragon Army lost more than 1000 soldiers, which is not a big loss.

After arriving in Chenzhou to recruit new recruits, they have resumed their organizational system, and are currently bringing in new recruits, strengthening training, and preparing to go into battle.

"Pang Shuai, the Xia bandits are brave and brave to fight. They are many desperadoes and very vigilant. If something goes wrong, they will flee to Ruzhou, or go south to Shenguang, and then come back. He will make up for the war damage. There are many veterans in Henan, and they are better than the last general. The recruits are much stronger." Dai Siyuan answered truthfully.

His soldiers were only [-] when he was full, and he didn't have as many horses and mules as others. He was fighting, and he was replenishing deserters from his own side, while he was recruiting new recruits. After a few months, the gap became obvious.

Pang Shigu also knew the inside story, he asked this question not to blame, but to put some pressure on Dai Siyuan, so that he would not slack off.After listening to Dai Siyuan's self-defense, he nodded and said: "I know your difficulties, train well. There are more than 2000 old soldiers and more than [-] new soldiers. They can train quickly. Your Majesty has already abolished the army. The sergeant will not run away wantonly, and fight hard in the future."

"Of order." Dai Siyuan stood up and responded.

"General Zhang, your troops crossed Yingshui to fight against the thieves, one victory and one defeat, and the merits and demerits balance out, so I will not be harsh. In the future, you will need to use your life to fight for the king. If this is the case, you will be rich and honored for generations." Pang Shigu looked at Zhang Jun, the commander of the Jianrui army on the left and right, and said, "Weibo and Huainan are all helping me now, and Yunzhou will also help King Liang soon. With the strength of the eight towns in all directions, why worry about the Shao bandits?" Indestructible?"

Zhang Yun lowered his eyelids, and said, "I will do my best for King Liang and Pang Shuai."

The Jianrui Army originally had 2 soldiers, but nearly half of them were lost in the Battle of Heqing, and now there are only [-] soldiers.Before going west, they were assigned more than [-] local peasants, but after half a year, these brave men returned, and they had to work hard on their own.

But the morale of the Jianrui army is really worrying.

They are mainly soldiers from the three towns of Xu, Yan, and Yun, and selected from the four states of Chu, Si, Hao, and Shou. They have fought for many years, but they have been like that.

After being transferred to Yingshui to defend, he fought several battles within a few months, including two crossing rivers to attack.In the first surprise attack on Xia's army, hundreds of people were beheaded, and they retreated completely. The second time they crossed the river, more than [-] people were defeated, and more than [-] soldiers were lost.Most of the rest were defending along the river, destroying the pontoon bridge that Xia Jun crossed the river, and intercepting the small group of Xia soldiers who smuggled to the east bank.

To be honest, the fight was not bad, so Pang Shigu didn't criticize him harshly, but encouraged Zhang Yun with a big cake.

"The three armies of Changjian, Kuangwei, and Jiama have not yet engaged in large-scale battles with the bandits, so don't be arrogant." Pang Shigu then said to the three generals Wang Zhongshi, Zhu Yougong, and Wang Jingluo: "The Xia bandits can still fight. There were dozens of battles above the water, and the river was red, but the morale of the thieves was not low, so it should not be underestimated. It is gradually entering winter, and I guess the summer thieves will attack aggressively. Ma Zhuangshi, can you rely on the Youguo Army?"

This made all three of them laugh.

The Changjian, Kuangwei, and Jiama armies each have more than ten thousand soldiers and horses.Among them, the Changjian Army and the Jiama Army only fought against the three towns of Weibo, Tianping, and Taining. The Kuangwei Army conquered Xuzhou Shipu, participated in the Battle of Heqing, and also defended the Dahe line of defense.

The commander of the Long Sword Army, Wang Zhongshi, is a fierce general, and he often leads the team to fight on the front line. He is extremely brave. Because he has never fought, he has no intuitive understanding of Xia Bing's combat effectiveness.I have seen a lot in the past few months, and even sent [-] heavy-armored swordsmen to cross the river to the west, broke through a small village of the Xia army, and killed all the defenders. Subconsciously, I thought that the two sides could still fight. Still relatively stable.

Zhu Yougong was also from the Changjian Army. He used to be the envoy of the Zuo Changjian Army, and recently served as the commander of the Left and Right Kuangwei Army.As Quan Zhong's righteous son, he is of course very reliable, and it is also reasonable to entrust the troops to him.

The former governor of Yingzhou, Wang Jingluo, was tall and strong, and he was a typical brave general in the army.He once made great contributions in the battles against Huangchao and Qin Zongquan, and was appreciated and promoted by Zhu Quanzhong, and became the commander of the left and right Jiama army.

This army has been fighting Zhu Jin and Zhu Xuan before.Because Zhu Jin had too many cavalry, more than 1 cavalry at its peak, all members of the Jiama Army used long spears, hooked and sickle spears, large bows, and strong crossbows to deal mainly with cavalry.Generally speaking, they were at the level of Zhaoyi's infantry back then, and they were very steady in the face of the thieves' cavalry. They easily and skillfully hooked Zhu Jin's cavalry off their horses and killed them one by one.When the cavalry broke up the formation, they didn't collapse at all, and continued to fight in groups, beating Zhu Jin to the point of crying, "I'm free to ride alone."

When attacking Weibo, the Jiama army also defeated the elite cavalry of the Wei people. They were all good soldiers. Even Shao Shude was well-known for a long time. He wanted to take this army under his account and use it as his trump card to beat the Khitan and Uyghur in the future——Shao ​​Dashuai I have always believed that these are the high-quality assets of the Central Plains, and it would be a pity to lose them in vain. It is not easy to train elite soldiers, and it often takes several times the death of weak soldiers to train them.

"You Guojun, alas." Pang Shigu sighed and stopped mentioning it.

There are currently 2 people in the department, who are resting in Yancheng and encircling Qibizhang's department.How should I put it, it is still possible to fight, but it is oily, slippery, and refuses to fight to the death.In addition, their commander-in-chief Ding Hui is also a veteran general, even more senior than Pang Shigu. It's not easy to say harsh words, so I simply used them as a reserve team.

I hope he can stand up at the critical moment and not disappoint.

The six armies of Flying Dragon, Jianrui, Changjian, Kuangwei, Jiama, and Youguo have a total of about 12 battle-ready soldiers, plus [-] Tutuan Township braves from Zhuzhou counties newly transferred to the defense, a total of [-] troops, which are difficult to maintain The line of defense of Chen, Xu, and Cai.

The total strength of the Xia army is not much larger than them, but because they can attack from multiple directions and have strong mobility, their advantages are very obvious.

He has also fought with Xia Jun for several years, and Pang Shigu is now very clear about their routines.

When you are sure to win the decisive battle head-on, fight head-on, and the world will be determined in one battle.When in doubt, use deep trenches and high bases, confront each other, and then use all kinds of indiscriminate means, such as flanking detours, recruiting surrenders and accepting rebels, etc., to weaken the main force of the enemy in front of you to a considerable extent, and win another battle.

Now seeing that after several months of preparations, the supplies and personnel of the Xia army have been in place one after another, Luozhou and Ruzhou have completely stabilized, and they have found out through small-scale fighting. A new round of offensive is ready.

And Xia Thief is ready, are they ready?So far, even Qi Bizhang's harassment in the rear can't be stopped, what should we do?
Liang Wang still paid too much attention to influence.In Pang Shigu's view, it is better to learn from Zhu Xuan, I know I can't beat you, so I will defend the city.You can toss and toss as much as you like outside the city, despite the disaster, when you can't beat it, you will naturally retreat, and I can still pursue it and get some results.

Or simply be more ruthless and move some of the people of Chen, Xu, and Cai to resettle in Xu, Su, Cao, and Dan.Anyway, the local army has fought hard for many years, and the population loss is not small, so there is enough space for resettlement.The rest of the people concentrated around the military towns and cities to farm, and retreated to the city when they encountered police, and how much food and grass they could harvest.

What Chen, Xu, and Cai needed for their battles were transported from the rear, and all kinds of materials needed for a year were stored.With the city and the army around, Xia Bandit couldn't go around and go deep into the rear, so the situation improved a lot.

Relying on this trick, Zhu Xuan endured for several years, until Xia Jun's big move eastward came, and he succeeded in surviving from death.

Pang Shigu is a warrior, he can only consider issues from a military point of view, but Zhu Quanzhong has to consider from a political and popular point of view.If it is not a last resort, can it be done?
"Over there in Zhengzhou, the King has appointed Ge Congzhou to take care of the overall situation, and we just need to concentrate on what's in front of us. The battle is imminent, and we must work together to overcome difficulties." Pang Shigu said.

"Follow the orders of the generals." All the generals responded one after another.

A while ago, Zhu Quanzhong just ordered to reorganize the troops in Sishui and Zhengzhou.When Hu Zhen was in Luoyang, there were more than [-] Youguo troops transferred from the [-]th capital, and there were also Baosheng army and Heyang Ya army remnants in the local area, which were reorganized into the left and right Longwu armies, with a total of [-] capitals. Ten thousand and six thousand soldiers were commanded by Ge Congzhou as the capital.

His son Xie Yanzhang returned to Bianzhou to take over Zhang Guibian's post and train the newly recruited tens of thousands of Yamen troops.

These new recruits have been training in Zhang Guibian's hands for more than a year, and their armor and equipment are all ready, and the army formation is also in good shape.Zhu Quanzhong was very happy and wanted to reward him, but when the news of Zhang Guiba's descent to Xia came, he lost everything immediately.

Zhang Guibian asked himself to resign, and Zhu Quanzhong agreed.

Zhang Guihou, the commander of the hall, also asked to resign. Zhu Quanzhong wrote a letter to comfort him, and ordered him to stay in his original post and return to Ge Congzhou's command.

In fact, according to Zhu Quanzhong's past temper, he must be held accountable.But since the killing of Hu Zhen's family, people's hearts were a little turbulent, so he hesitated.

The mess in Bianzhou really can't stand the big trouble, Zhu Quanzhong knows it very well.Now we can only wait for change, waiting for the day when the Shao thief is besieged by a group, or there may be a turning point.

(End of this chapter)