Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 787
The Xia army adjusted its formation again, and more than [-] people divided into three groups to advance.

Along the way is Liu Zijing's iron cavalry on the northern line with [-] cavalry, who are transporting grain and grass from Heyin to Zhengzhou, and guarding the coast of the Yellow River by the way.

All the way to the south, Fu Yanchao led the Dingnan Army with [-] riders, heading towards Weishi County, breaking the route of Bianzhou's southward escape, and stalking Chen Xu's back.

The central route was led by Shao Shude himself, with more than [-] people, with the surrendered army as the vanguard.

At noon on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, Zhang Guihou reported that Zhongmou County would not surrender. He had already sent the hall to attack the city, breaking it with one blow.Shao Shude ordered more than [-] families of resisting officials and soldiers to be dispatched to Longyou, and sent thousands of guards and soldiers to personally escort them to Sishui and return.

That night, the army arrived in Bajiao Town.The horse was tired, kicked and kicked people, and was unwilling to go again, so Shao Shude ordered to set up camp.

From Baisha to Zhongmu, it was 35 li, and from Zhongmu to Bajiao, it was 75 li, which was equivalent to marching [-] li in one day, which is incomparable to the previous one-man and five-horse march of [-] or [-] li a day.

Bajiao Town is already the boundary of Junyi County in Bianzhou, and Junyi is one of the Fuguo counties in Bianzhou. More than ten miles to the east is Banqiaodian, where Zhang Guihou led his army to station.More than [-] miles to the east of Banqiaodian is Bianzhou City. There are even a small number of children from rich families in Bianzhou riding war horses, holding bows and iron guns, probing their brains outside Banqiaodian for careful reconnaissance.

There is no doubt that everyone in Bianzhou already knew the approach of their victorious army.

"It's less than forty miles away from Bianzhou, and we can arrive at noon tomorrow..." Shao Shude didn't have any counselors around him, so he could only call Xie Tong, who had recently come to vote from Chang'an, to his side, and let's take a closer look and observe his behavior by the way. Level.

Yes, Xie Tong voted.Although the Xuanwu Army's Jinzhao Academy in Chang'an was not banned, it was extremely inconvenient for people and materials to come and go. It may be due to internal struggles. Xie Tong received very little funding from the Jinzhao Academy, and his life was very difficult.In a rage, Xie Tong joined the enemy.

This is just his statement, in fact Shao Shude thinks there are deeper reasons.Xie Tong is a smart man and an egoist, his loyalty to Zhu Quanzhong is very limited.Back then, when he was sent to Chengdu, the first emperor appointed him as the governor of Lingzhou, so he gladly took up the post.After losing his official position, he had the cheek to return to Bianzhou, but the opportunity was lost, he could no longer be the real core, and was even hated by others.

"Your Majesty, there is no need to fight in Bianzhou. After all, the Tianwei Fourth Army has been training for two years. The Xuanwu Army is not a stagnant town like Wei Bona. The training is still very strict, and the requirements for the sergeants are also very high. The backbone of the officers is also Veteran pawns with rich experience in battle are not the kind of flamboyants who will collapse at the touch of a button and wait for the wind to surrender." Xie Tong considered his words and said slowly: "Your Majesty can send some cavalry to monitor, and then divide the troops into multiple groups to move around and intercept the messenger. , Wandering, so that Bianzhou will not be able to communicate with other states. After many days of stability, you can spread rumors. If you are so loyal and impatient, you will return to help at that time, or you may have a chance."

Xie Tong was still in a hurry, and the suggestion he made seemed to be the same.He is now only an important member of the Shuofang shogunate, and he must still want to climb up and lay a better foundation for future generations.

Shao Shude was noncommittal, but couldn't stop laughing.

"Your Majesty, listen to the briefings from the Department of Wangwang and Datong Maxing." Li Zhong walked in and put a stack of official letters on top of the desk.

Shao Shude picked it up and looked at it casually, then suddenly asked: "Li Kan died in the Jiangling Mansion, the princes fought for the position, the generals rebelled, and the wars continued. What does Sui Shi Xie think?"

In fact, the interior of Jingzhou is far from what Shao Shude said so lightly.After Li Kan died of illness, several times each brought in foreign aid and fought endlessly. However, within a few months, the rebellious government general Zhang Jun quickly seized power, and he died and left.But Zhang Jun was soon killed by Xu Cun. His younger brother Zhang Yu led the army to fight Xu Cun, but was defeated and died. His son Zhang Lian led the remnant troops to Kuizhou to the west, joined forces with Ximen Zhao, the defender of Kuizhou, and fought against the occupying Jiangling. Xu Cun.

Ximenzhao, whose real name is Fu Daozhao, was born as a Cai thief, and later served as the commander of the Shence Army Pengridu. In the first year of Qianning, he was destroyed by Shao Shude, fled to the south, and joined Li Kan.Later, he made military exploits in the long-term war with Zhao Kuangning in Xiangyang and Leiman in Langzhou, and was appointed as the defense envoy of Kuizhou, and he had a territory.

In fact, the war between the Loyalty Army and Jingnan has been going on intermittently.It's hard to tell who will strike first. At present, the Zhongyi Army is led by Zhao Kuangning's younger brother Zhao Kuangming. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the civil strife in Jingnan, it launched an offensive with the intention of annexing the town in one fell swoop. This gave Zhang Lian and Fu Daozhao a chance to breathe , became active again.

"Your Majesty, brother Zhao Kuangning can be restrained. Now that the battle in Henan is urgent, the most important thing is to destroy Liang." Xie Tong didn't say much, just mentioned the key points.

"Ma Yin has already judged the Hunan military affairs, what does Xie Suishi think?" Shao Shude asked.

Liu Jianfeng was killed by his subordinates with Tie Lao because of playing with his wife. Ma Yin became the leader of this group of Cai thieves fleeing to Hunan, and began to further attack the city and occupy the territory, intending to occupy Hunan, and may even covet other directions.

"Hunan is not rich in registered permanent residence, and its troops are few and weak. What is your majesty doing with him? After conquering Quanzhong, those towns in the Central Plains who are inconvenient to do so can be moved to the south of the Yangtze River. It will be easy for these clowns to be wiped out." Xie Tong replied.

Shao Shude nodded.

In order to quickly wipe out Zhu Quanzhong, he granted many official positions, all of which were envoys with real power.If Quanzhong is to be destroyed, he will certainly not tolerate the separatist forces in the heart of the Central Plains, but he is not willing to renege on his promises, so let these military leaders transition for two years, and after everyone looks good, they can be moved to the town up.

The principle of moving the town is to go to the south, you have to separate the territory to the south, and leave the north with a stronger population, wealth, and military strength to me.Wait for me to wipe out the northern heroes, and then take care of the rest.

"Xie Suishi has real talent and learning. I hope you will give me more counselors when you go east to Bianzhou." Shao Shude saluted and said.

"Dare not to follow orders!" Xie Tong stood up flattered and responded.

******
The tenth day of April in the fourth year of Qianning was another disaster-like day for the people of Bianzhou.

In the past, Qin Zong's power was weak in Bianzhou, and he stopped in Bajiao Town.But this time the Xia thief attacked, but no one could stop them, and they killed all the way to the city of Bianzhou.

In fact, rangers appeared outside the city early in the morning, and the Bian soldiers who "requisitioned" the last batch of grain, silk, gold and silverware from the merchant ships on the Bian River returned to the city and closed the gates tightly.

Ashes lay beyond the walls.

This time it's for real.Before, I was not willing to burn down the houses attached to the Guo, but this time I started to clean them up from the afternoon of the day before yesterday, dismantling what could be dismantled, and the materials obtained were transported into the city, which could be used as firewood or used to repair the city walls.As for those that could not be dismantled, they were naturally burned. On the night of the eighth day of the lunar new year, the flames outside Bianzhou city burned all night.

The nearby woods were also cut down by a large number of people, trying to create trouble for the summer thieves, preventing them from building siege equipment nearby, and accumulating a large amount of wood by the way for emergencies.

The entire operation lasted for a day and two nights, and Bianzhou mobilized tens of thousands of people, demonstrating strong organizational skills.

Now, Xia Bandit is approaching the city, and he has done everything that needs to be done, and the rest is up to the two sides to confront each other face to face.

At noon, Princess Liang Zhang Hui took the palace servants, concubines, and steamed cakes to the top of the city, and distributed them to the guards.

Zhang Hui had a good reputation in the army. Wherever he went, everyone praised him, and some even cheered.

The earth-shattering sound of horseshoes sounded.

On the distant horizon, knights in brown armor emerged like a tide.

They covered roads, meadows, fields, and woods, popping up one after another from the horizon like magic tricks.

The big banner was held high, and hundreds of people surrounded a knight in golden armor and rushed towards Bianzhou City wildly.

"It's Shao thief! It must be Shao thief!"

"Shao thief is coming!"

"Where's the crossbow? Shoot him with a strong crossbow! Shoot him dead!"

Zhang Hui tightly clenched his small fist and looked expectantly at the place where he made the sound, hoping that he could really shoot Shao thief to death.

"Shao Thief" didn't give them a chance, he stopped far away, set up an awning with his hands, and looked at the city wall carefully.Er, I saw that he seemed to have said something, and after a while, he rode his horse and rushed to the place within a stone's throw of the city, shouting loudly: "Where is Zhu Quanzhong? Only women will be allowed to guard the city?"

There was overwhelming laughter from the knights lined up in the distance.

There was a continuous hum from the top of the city.The knight was startled, beat his horse and left, and Xuan turned around and cursed.

brutal!Unruly!
This is Zhang Hui's intuitive feeling that Shao Shude, the thief chief, must also be a brutal and rude warrior, just like the barbarian chief Hao recorded in the history books.

Shao Shude rode his horse around the city again to watch.He rode very slowly, carefully observing the city defense pattern.More than [-] soldiers of the personal guards followed behind him, preventing the soldiers from rushing out of the city and endangering the safety of the commander-in-chief.

But they were overthinking, and after turning around for half an hour, the people at the top of the city let it go and didn't respond at all, which shows that they have been cowardly to a certain extent.

"Beyond the city gate, everything is a battlefield. If the bandits are like this, why worry?" Shao Shude raised his horsewhip and said with a smile: "In the land of the Central Plains' Four Wars, the reason why Quanzhong is strong is to draw the flames of war outside and defeat the Song Dynasty." Not hurt. I have been fighting with me for many years now, and the hinterland is full of wars, and the decline is evident, and it is easy to break."

"Your Majesty wants to attack the city?" Xie Tong frowned and asked.

"There is little hope, but the attack is still going to happen. What if it succeeds?" Shao Shude rode his horse around, jogging, and said: "The focus of this battle is to besiege the city and fight for reinforcements."

"Where to attack reinforcements?"

"It depends on who comes to the door." Shao Shude said with a smile: "Quanzhong will probably return to the north. If his troops are clean-up and there is no gap to sneak in, then let him go. But Quanzhong can run, how can Pang Shigu run?"

Xie Tong was thoughtful, King Xia really "cherished his life" in the war, and he must wait until he is absolutely sure before making a move.If a war had a [-]% chance of winning, many generals thought it was time to give it a go, but King Xia would never do it.

The big banner moved to the south again.Some sergeants have already set up camp, but the city gates of Bianren are closed, but there is still no movement, not even going out of the city to attack the woodcutters and mining sergeants.

"Zhu Quanzhong received the news yesterday, right?" Shao Shude stared carefully at the top of the city, a large group of Yingying and Yanyan walked up and down, and suddenly smiled: "Quanzhong has no other skills, but there are a lot of concubines."

Xie Tong awkwardly filtered out the second half of the sentence, and replied: "Yes, I received it late yesterday at the latest. If Quan Zhong goes north, he should first go to Chenzhou and then return to Bianzhou. Your Majesty, there is a waterway here. The all-loyal march should be fast, so don't be careless."

Why do you want to go this way?Because there is a backup channel to the west of the Bianshui River in the Guochao Dynasty, and there are quite a lot of business travelers, that is, the Yingshui and Caishui systems. Board the ship in Yingzhou, and go directly to Bianzhou via Chenzhou.Even if there are not enough ships and the sergeants cannot board the ships, they can still put luggage, food and grass on the ships.

The thing that most affects the speed of marching is the baggage. With this channel, it is not only safe, but also saves a lot of trouble. The food road is safe, and there is no need to carry much food and grass with the army.

It is very difficult to catch Zhu Quanzhong's flaws by disturbing the grain road. Who made the Henan water system extend in all directions?If you want to blame, you can only blame the court, because Yingshui and Caishui were dredged by the court, and Zhu Quanzhong just did some simple maintenance and enjoyed the benefits.

"Your Majesty, I just received the news that Huai General Zhou Ben led thousands of boatmen to cooperate with Zhu Yanshou to attack Shouzhou and was repelled. He has already marched westward a few days ago, and he may have gone in the direction of Yingkou." Li Zhong Came over suddenly and reported.

Shao Shude thought for a while, Yang Xingmi and Zhou Ben probably didn't know the news about the battle of Sishui.Zhou Ben's westward march was probably planned. He used his boat master to assist the Liang people. He had helped Shi Shucong before, and this time he was helping Zhu Quanzhong attack Yingzhou, and perhaps also subsidized some food, grass and equipment.

"Yang Xingmi! Why doesn't Qian Liu settle the states in eastern Zhejiang?" Shao Shude swung his horsewhip forcefully, and said, "Don't let me seize the opportunity, or I will rush to kill them all."

(End of this chapter)