Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 765 The Northern Line
Zhang Quanyi's family left Caizhou in a hurry the next day after the Lantern Festival.

Traveling 280 miles northwest of Caizhou, you can reach Xiangcheng, Ruzhou, but there is a big battle there, and the road is cut off, so you go west to Tangzhou, and then go north to Ruzhou. Xiangcheng.

Li Tangbin took time out of his busy schedule to meet Zhang Quanyi.

Although he used to belong to the top and bottom, Zhang Quanyi didn't dare to take the big one. He led his family and bowed and said: "See Shuai Li."

Li Tangbin returned the salute, then sat down, unable to find anything to say for a while.

Knowing the temperament of this old subordinate, Zhang Quanyi squeezed a little smile, and said: "When I left Chang'an in the past, I missed Erlang very much. It was only when I learned that you served in Xia Sui's army that I felt relieved. It is not easy to survive in this world. Hearing the old man's words The good news is especially reassuring. I am going to Canzhou, the mountains are high and the rivers are long, and I don’t know when we will meet again."

After all, Zhang Quanyi looked melancholy, as if he was really sad because it was difficult to meet Li Tangbin again.

Li Tangbin hummed, but still didn't know what to say.

More than ten years have passed, things have long changed, and now one is the commander of the Luoyang camp, with more than [-] soldiers and horses in his hands, and the other is a surrender who has nothing and is helpless. The change of status and identity has long been caused. The difference between cloud and mud.

Zhang Quanyi didn't speak. In order to liven up the atmosphere, Zhang Quanen laughed at himself and said: "In the past few years, from Weihan to Heyang, and then to Caizhou, we have fought and failed repeatedly. Not only us, but the whole Liang land is sighing and worried. Zhu Quanzhong, I'm afraid It is about to be defeated. Li Shuai has made such achievements, and in the future..."

Originally, he wanted to talk about conferring kings and dukes, but it was inappropriate after thinking about it. After all, everyone is still a courtier of the Tang Dynasty in name, so you can't talk nonsense.

Li Tangbin smiled. When it comes to military issues, he has some interest, but he can't say more. He can only say: "It's too early. The Liang bandits are still fighting on the southern front, and the northern front is even counterattacking. As for the main force in the middle, They are still in a stalemate. To be honest, it has been three or four months, and counting the battle losses of Xiangyong, the casualties of each of them have exceeded [-]."

The stalemate between the two armies does not mean that there is no fighting.In fact, small and medium-scale battles are very frequent.Perhaps there are not many casualties at one time, but the accumulation over a long period of time is quite amazing.

In the confrontation between Liang and Jin in later generations, Wang Yanzhang fought more than 200 battles with soldiers from Hedong, all of which were short, fierce, and bloody small-scale fights.But no matter how small the scale is, what is the number of casualties accumulated in more than 3 battles?A hundred people were killed or injured, or [-] or [-] people.This kind of battle would not cause an army to collapse on the spot, because each time the casualties were not large, it was the kind of blunt knife cutting the flesh slowly, but after a long time, it would always reach a critical point.

Li Tangbin had just asked Zhe Zongben to capture tens of thousands of Liang soldiers, and sent them to the Shanzhou Academy of the capital coach for training.On the post road from Shanzhou to Ruzhou via Luoyang, the team of supplementary soldiers has never stopped, and batches of soldiers were sent to the front to fill the vacancies of the troops.

The Shanzhou Academy has recently recruited 5000 strong new recruits from Shan, Guo, Hua, Shang, Pu, and Tong to supplement the increasing consumption.Even, a group of [-] people from the Zhenguo Army are heading to the front line, and they are going to be dispersed in batches and then added to the various armies.

Li Tangbin wants to avoid this kind of meaningless consumption, but it requires an opportunity.He glanced at Zhang Quanyi, the opportunity had already appeared, and Zhang Quanyi also made some contributions.Liang Jun's line of defense has been torn open a crack, and what needs to be done now is to continue to tear it apart, let it expand, and eventually lead to the collapse of the entire army.

Chasing and killing is definitely more relaxed and comfortable than confrontation and consumption, and it is the way to win with the least cost.

Zhang and Li chatted casually for a while, seeing that Li Tangbin lacked interest, they got up and left.

Zhang Quanyi's family lived in the newly built inn.The post general is an old soldier who has been injured and retired. This seems to be very common in Xiadi. Most of the posts in the post station have been taken up by them. They are family-run and the charges are not cheap, but because they are located on the main roads, the facilities are also very expensive. OK, so there's still some money to be made.

"Brother, now it seems that we are far away from this circle of right and wrong." Sitting in the room, Zhang Quanen had a complicated expression, and he couldn't tell whether it was luck or regret, maybe both.

"Did you see the foreign soldiers transferred to the east just now? They are the ones on the post road." Zhang Quanyi's expression was relatively relaxed, and it was obvious that he was quite satisfied, after all, the worst situation was avoided.

"King Xia likes to conscript Tibetans to die, and he was in Xiaohangu Road back then." Zhang Quanen said with a sneer.

"Next month, we must leave through Xin'an, Mianchi, Xiashi and other counties. When we get there, don't talk loudly about the death of the Tibetans. There are a lot of Tibetans staying there." Zhang Quanyi reminded casually, and then He said again: "I guess there are three intentions for these Tibetan soldiers to go east."

"Brother, don't rush to say it, let me guess." Zhang Quanen said with a smile: "First, transfer Yingzhou to the east to attack the grain road of Shu Cong's department; second, transfer Yancheng to the north to attack the Dinghui; third, Go deep into Chenzhou, harass Pang Shigu's rear, and cause turmoil in the army. Nothing more than these three, with Caizhou as the rear, Li Tangbin can use more means than before."

Zhang Quanyi nodded.In fact, in terms of fighting, Zhang Quanen may be slightly better than him, although the level of the two brothers is not very good.

Judging from his rich military experience, Liang Jun seemed to be breaking down little by little. He had seen too many similar things in the past few years.Fortunately, we got off the boat early, otherwise the whole family would have died together.

******
The situation on the southern front is showing signs of disintegration, but everything seems to be fine on the northern front.

With the core of more than 2 cavalry from the Longwu Army, the right wing of the Changzhi Army, and the Desheng Army, plus a large number of rural bravery, a total of more than [-] soldiers were divided into several branches. They quickly stabilized the turbulent hearts and gradually regained lost ground.At present, the army is stationed in Xingze, which strongly supports the defense of Heyin Jiancheng.

Zhu Youyu, who served as the commander of the capital, was full of confidence. He planned to wait for Xia Jun to shed blood under Heyin City before suddenly rushing out and smashing his army.

However, the Chishui army made Fan He quickly retreat to Sishui, using the terrain and city defense.He only had such a good-for-nothing army at hand, and if he lost it, fifty thousand Liang troops would come, and the area around Xuanmen Pass and Mangshan would be completely out of control.

Ge Congzhou, the envoy of Longwu Army, suggested to go north of the Yellow River and attack Heyang.Zhu Youyu did not allow it, because his battle-ready army was only more than 2, and from time to time there were bandits from Xia who would bravely cross the river from the rear and attack the grain roads everywhere, so they had to send troops to maintain and garrison them.According to the information heard, the Xia bandits had thousands of prefectural and county soldiers and more than [-] Yajun troops in Heyang, as well as the two cities of Banzhu and Guanggu on the north bank, which they were not sure of taking.

As for the sneak attack, the possibility is extremely small.Because of the Xia thieves roaming the countryside everywhere, Liang Jun's actions did not have any suddenness.Almost everything they do is transparent.On the other hand, the Xia bandits can maintain a quite possible surprise attack. Everything about them exists in the mist, which is a great advantage.

How to choose is really difficult.There is no way, in the end it is still up to Zhu Quanzhong to make the decision.

"Zhen Bian has been in town for 14 years..." Zhu Quanzhong stood on the high platform, and there were sergeants in the audience, but he was a little out of his mind, and his soul was wandering away.

The spirit is not as good as before, no longer as focused, enthusiastic, and heroic as before.After getting up every day, I always feel very tired, not only physically tired, but more psychologically.

People pretend to be strong, boost the morale of the army, exchange cups with generals, and talk about the gains and losses of ancient emperors and generals with civil officials. They always seem to be full of energy, always full of confidence, and never admit defeat.

But every day after returning home, I always sit alone for a long time,

The hero is short of breath, which is probably what he said.

"My lord, the battle in Zhengzhou should not be delayed, I think..." Li Zhen came up and suggested.

Zhu Quanzhong waved his hand, Li Zhen decisively shut up.

"Zhengzhou is fairly stable." Zhu Quanzhong said: "Da Lang did a good job. Before he went, bandits were rampant. After the tens of thousands of troops overwhelmed him, it became much more refreshing."

"But the soldiers here can't move. If they move, the thieves will move south and enter Bobianzhou." Zhu Quanzhong turned his head, looked at Li Zhen, and said seriously: "Steady the situation first. These tens of thousands of people cannot be lost. "

Jing Xiang watched from the side feeling a little sad.

Once upon a time, Liang Wang was also the hero who swallowed thousands of miles.He fought repeatedly with the bandits, killed many people without blinking an eye, and even went to the front line to spy on the enemy, so he almost died at the hands of Cai Bandit Ranger.

But after the suppression of Qin Zongquan, he basically stopped leading the army himself, and focused more on managing internal affairs.This is right, because you are no longer a simple general, but the actual master of several towns. If you don't improve your internal affairs, you cannot sustain it for a long time.Li Keyong next door is an excellent example. If he hadn't captured Youzhou, Hedong would have been squeezed dry by him, and his defeat would be a matter of time.

But after governing for many years, the former arrogance seems to be wiped out bit by bit in civil affairs such as money and food, prisons, and running schools.

There are only more than [-] yamen soldiers in Zhengzhou, and now they have to calculate carefully, for fear that the whole situation will be corrupted if they are thrown away.what is this?This is afraid!
Fear of failure, fear of being destroyed now, dare not take risks, always want to procrastinate and wait for a turnaround.This alone casts a shadow over the future.

The sergeants in the audience kept shouting and shouting, looking decent.

Tianwu Eighth Army, the last reserve team in Bianzhou.But this is [-] new recruits, not [-] old soldiers, otherwise no matter which battlefield they are put into, it will be enough to change the situation.

The Xia bandits did have a lot of soldiers, but Heyang hadn't been plowed for long, Luoyang was dilapidated, and Ruzhou was called a white land, all relying on Shaanxi, Hezhong and even Lingxia for long-distance transfer of resources, which greatly limited the troops they could use.

Even if you have 50 riders, what's the use if you can't afford to maintain the front line?
In fact, what Ge Congzhou said was correct. At this time, it is time to put it to death and survive. Let it go and select thousands of elite soldiers to go north to Heyang. If you can win a big victory by luck, the situation will be greatly improved. Get a big improvement.

"Has Zhu Xuan already made a move?" Zhu Quanzhong asked suddenly.

"Back to Your Majesty, there was news yesterday that Zhu Xuan had sent an envoy to Puzhou, demanding that Liang Hanyong lead his troops to leave and return to town via Wei Bo. Luo Hongxin had promised the Xia people to return to Heyang by this route years ago. But you are not allowed to come again." Li Zhen replied.

"What will happen if Liang Hanyong doesn't agree?" Zhu Quanzhong asked.

"Zhu Xuan will lead the army to expel them," Li Zhen said.

"Let Zhu Zhen get ready and cooperate closely with Zhu Xuan. Once it is launched, the Xia thieves will be surrounded and wiped out." Zhu Quanzhong said: "Liang Hanyong is destroyed, and the Xia thieves can't attack my rear from Puzhou. The Yanei army, the pro-cavalry army, the Zhuosheng army, the Tabai capital, and the heroic military capital can all be used. Desheng's three thousand cavalry arrived in Zhengzhou, and the situation immediately improved. It can be seen that the cavalry army is the most effective in dealing with the scattered village bravery of the Xia bandits. By the way, is Luo Hongxin still unwilling to send troops to attack Heyang?"

"Luo Hongxin sent envoys to send [-] horses, [-] pieces of silk, and [-] coins, but did not mention sending troops to help."

"You run again." Zhu Quanzhong sighed: "Wei Bo has many soldiers and generals, sufficient money and food, cattle and sheep are wild, and his strength cannot be underestimated. If he can send troops, it may be more effective than Yang Xingmi."

The relationship between Wei Bo and Xuanwu is also good, because they both share a common threat.For Wei Bo, the two prefectures of Menghuai are equivalent to the gateway and are very important.When Han Jian served as Jiedu envoy, he was eager to expand, and Heyang was briefly captured by him.Now that Heyang is in Shao Shude's hands, how can he not be afraid?

It's a pity that they are only willing to provide money, food, horses and mules, and are unwilling to send troops to help the war.If you can attack Shouzhou and Anzhou in two ways like Yang Xingmi, the situation in Bianliang will be greatly improved.

What a pity, what a pity!
"Your Majesty, I'm leaving now." Li Zhen responded with emotion.

"Do it well." Zhu Quanzhong said with a smile: "Shao thief wants to kill me, it's not that easy."

(End of this chapter)