Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 889 Pursuit and Consciousness

Wang Shike hurriedly arrived at the north bank of Jishui, looked at the burning camp, and cursed loudly.

If I had known that I would have killed Zhu Xuan and Zhu Qiong, these two shameless things actually left quietly in the middle of the night. After making it clear that they wanted Qingzhou soldiers to kill them, they slipped away first.

Li Siye persuaded from the side: "Yamen, the matter has come to an end, and it is useless to lament. Why should we share life and death with Shao Bandit? Shao Bandit entered Qilu, separated from Weibo and Cangjing by a river, these old bastards from Hebei I'm afraid they're going to be panic-stricken, and everyone is in danger. Li Keyong and Yang Xingmi should also have a headache at this meeting, if we don't stop the Shao bandits and let them all occupy Henan, what's the point of fighting?"

Wang Shike felt relieved, but he still said: "A lot of troops have been lost, Ping Haijun is trapped in Henan."

Ping Haijun is a foreign town army from Dengzhou, with a military strength of [-].

Right now, there are only [-] serious troops on the north bank of Jishui, plus almost the same number of Tutuan villagers.Xiangyong was able to cross the river because he sent people to build floating bridges to the north of Jishui and south of the Yellow River.

"Yamei, just go back and rebuild. There are not many people in the town who want to be soldiers. They recruit a group, distribute them with equipment and armor, and just practice." Li Siye said nonchalantly: "Ziqing has no shortage of craftsmen and iron smelters. There is no shortage of good horses, even if there is a temporary shortage, just go to Qingzhou Bohai Museum to buy them."

The Bohai Pavilion is located in Qingzhou City, established during the reign of Emperor Daizong. It is regarded as a foreign-related institution of the Tang Dynasty, specializing in trade with Bohai.

Bohai State calls itself "the Prosperous State of the East of the Sea", with a large population and developed commerce and trade. Its maritime trade with Silla, Japan, and Datang is very frequent.

Those that are valued by the common people are: the dodder from Taibai Mountain, the kelp from the South China Sea, the soybean from Zhacheng, the deer from Fuyu, the hog from Hujie, the horse from Libin, the cloth from Xianzhou, the cotton from Wozhou, and the silk from Longzhou. , the iron of Weicheng, the rice of Lucheng, the crucian carp of Meituo Lake, the plum of Wandu, and the pear of Leyou.

When Li Siye mentioned buying horses, he was naturally a "horse leading guests".Rate Bin, in the area of ​​Ussuriysk, Russia today.

Since the time of Li Zhengji, Ziqing Town has paid great attention to maritime trade with the Bohai State. In order to develop the horse administration, it has vigorously purchased Binding horses, "every year."

The full name of the Ziqing Jiedu Envoy is "Ziqing Jiedu Envoy, Pinglu Military Envoy, Shipping Escort of Silla and Bohai Sea, Envoy of Zhidu Yingtian Observation and Disposal, and Qingzhou Governor".That is to say, Qi Shuai was actually in charge of Datang’s diplomatic and trade affairs with Silla and Bohai.

This trade even lasted until the Five Dynasties period.

Because of the rise of the Khitan, the northern tribes were swept away, and the Central Plains had been in chaos for a long time, and the once prosperous Hebei Horse Administration was also destroyed. Therefore, the later Tang Dynasty court bought horses through the Qingzhou Pavilion. State sells horses."

"Deputy Envoy Li, this... alas!" Wang Shike sighed, stomped his feet, and headed far north under the guard of his own soldiers.

After he left, [-] soldiers from Wan Qiangdu patrolled along the Jishui River—Wan Qiangdu came from Laizhou and was also an outside town army.

They looked at Ping Haijun's robes who set fire to stop the enemy, and they all felt sad.What if they are the ones who stay behind?

Inside the camp, the Huguo and Zhongwu armies withdrew in embarrassment.

Under the firelight, from time to time, camp fences burned and fell to the ground.Tents, fodder, and vehicles burned one after another, and then ignited the nearby withered grass and woods, causing a larger-scale fire.

Fengzang's company beheaded several officers, and then contained the troops, ordered them to bypass the fire zone and pursue them separately.

Ping Haijun is everywhere, and there are even more Tutuan villagers from Qizhou and Zizhou—they are the real poor people, eating the worst food, fighting the hardest battles, and having no military pay , and no one cared when they retreated.

Zhao Yan personally led three thousand soldiers and chased them all the way to the bank of Jishui.

He was warned by King Xia, this time he played harder and led the team to kill.Fortunately, the enemy had no fighting spirit, otherwise he would have been hacked to death with his three-legged cat martial arts.

"Kill the thief!" With one stroke of Zhao Yan's sword, a large group of loyal soldiers rushed onto the pontoon bridge.

The oncoming arrows are dense, wave after wave, endless.

The soldiers of the Zhongwu Army suffered heavy casualties, corpses were strewn all over the pontoon bridge, and many people fell into the river and disappeared after a while.

Zhao Yan was shot by an arrow in his helmet, and he was so frightened that he immediately looked for a place to hide - running around with arrow feathers on his head was ridiculous enough.

Feng Zangzhi led more than a thousand people to chase to the pontoon bridge. Seeing that the thieves were already setting fire to the bridge, he sighed and led his army to chase eastward.

There used to be a lot of Qingzhou soldiers stationed there, now that Wang Shike and Zhu Qiong are running away, they must be panic-stricken and run away.It's better to chase after it, even if you can't catch a few people, you should be able to gain something in terms of goods.

On February 22, tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers arrived in Pingyin.

Dai Siyuan, the army envoy, received the order and immediately pursued to the east. The bandit camp at Gema Mountain had been breached. Pu Bing beheaded more than two thousand ranks.

"Damn it, others have taken away all the military exploits." Dai Siyuan spat and said, "There were three thousand Qingzhou soldiers defending Gema Mountain before? The terrain is difficult and dangerous, can this be breached?"

"It's not only three thousand, but there are five or six thousand if you count the Tutuan villagers. Military envoy, let's go after them! Pu Bing and Xu Bing have been fighting for so long, and they are shattered. If we continue to chase, we are afraid that something will happen. Let's rush to support them." Maybe you can earn a lot of merit." Li Renhan said: "Since the Eastern Expedition, the various ministries have performed differently, and King Xia has noticed it. After the war..."

He didn't finish the sentence, but the meaning was very clear. If you want to keep the number and not be dismissed, you have to work hard.

"Chase!" Dai Siyuan ordered the pursuit without any nonsense.

The Zhongwu army is building a pontoon bridge, crossing Jishui to the north to pursue; Fengzang's relatives led [-] National Guard troops to pursue eastward, and if you add the tens of thousands of Japanese troops, this is obviously the focus of the pursuit.

******
The city gate of Changqing County opened wide, and a large group of cavalry rushed out of the city gate and disappeared into the field.

After a while, the sound of horseshoes sounded more densely than before.The Dingnan army was urgently mobilized, and the troops were divided into two groups, all the way to the north to chase the fleeing bandit cavalry, all the way to the Changqing County.

The governor of Dizhou, Shao Bo, had just left the city with his men and horses, but was charged by the cavalry. The two thousand or so people in the front line only lasted for a while, and immediately collapsed on the spot.

Shao Bo had no choice but to flee back to the city with his people and shut the city gates tightly.

After counting the number of people, the 700 town troops brought over from Dizhou are considered complete, and there are [-] left.The whole army is in the early [-]s, and there is enough food and grass, but they are trapped in the city, how can they escape?

To be honest, he had the chance to leave the troops and run, but he couldn't bear to do it.

Riding alone to avoid going back to Dizhou, the sergeant's family asked, how to deal with it?If you encounter someone with a bad temper, you can directly make a fuss, even chop off his head.

Wei Boqiu, the envoy of the Dingnan Army, also rushed over from Fengqi Post. The [-] cavalry was divided into two groups, one rested and the other patrolled. If the enemy army was defeated, they would immediately rush forward and wipe it out.

The initial task that King Xia sent them over was to ambush, but later it was found to be unrealistic, so it became a stagnation, and now it seems that it is enough to directly form a system to charge and kill.

"Military envoy, someone from Changqing County is here." The soldier pointed to the front and said.

Wei Boqiu looked intently, but saw a young general walking towards him "protecting" several riders.

"Xia Housheng of Dizhou Military Academy has seen the general." The visitor got off his horse and bowed in salute.

"Why are you here? But Shao Bo is going to surrender?" Wei Boqiu asked.

"No." Xia Housheng said: "My family's governor said that if the general releases me to return to Dizhou, I would like to pay the general all the money, silk, gold and silverware, horse mules, grain and grass accumulated in the city."

Wei Boqiu was taken aback for a moment, and suddenly laughed out loud.The sergeants laughed too.

Xia Housheng didn't know why.In his view, if they persist in Changqing, and finally the Xia Army brigade arrives and surrounds them, everyone in the city will have to share the goods equally.But at this time, the Dingnan Army can swallow it all by itself, isn't it wonderful?

This is to judge others by oneself.

Shao Shude ruled the army and advocated orderly looting, or "distributing donations" in the euphemistic name, but private looting was strictly prohibited, and anyone who violated the order would be beheaded.The spoils seized by the various ministries must be uniformly registered and distributed.Maybe you can hide a little bit in private, but it is absolutely impossible to be too much, and it would be a troublesome thing to be found out.

Wei Boqiu dared not accept Xia Housheng's proposal.

"General Xiahou, let's go back and bring a letter to Envoy Shao." Wei Boqiu said, "Your surname is Shao, and the king of Xia is also surnamed Shao. They are originally a family. It would be a good talk if you don't raise the state to surrender."

Xia Housheng's expression changed.

Of course he knew the importance of Dizhou.Clams and insects (the ones on the left and the ones on the right, the starting point cannot be shown) Yanchi produces hundreds of thousands of dendrobium salt every year. Like the sea trade, it is an important source of income for Ziqing Town. In the Guo Dynasty, although sea salt produced the most, it was called "Final salt", if there is a choice, most people still purchase pool salt.

Dizhou originally belonged to Ziqing Town, but the long-term ownership was uncertain.Because of good economic conditions and the benefits of Yanchi, the three towns of Chengde, Ziqing, and Cangjing competed endlessly.During the Zhenyuan period, Zhao Gao, the governor of Dizhou, descended to Chengde Wang Wujun and Ziqing Li Na successively.Later, Dizhou belonged to Wang Wujun, but Li Na had always controlled the Hachongduo Salt Pond. For this reason, a "three-branched city" was built next to the salt pool. The city is located at the junction of Chengde, Weibo, and Ziqing towns. Hence the name.

The dispute over the clams and salt ponds spread to the imperial court, Emperor Dezong issued an edict to mediate, Wang Wujun sent troops back to Chengde, and Li Na demolished Sancha City, which shows its interests.

In addition, the location of Dizhou is also very critical.To the east is the sea, to the west is Dezhou, to the north is Cangzhou, and to the south are the states of Qi, Zi and Qing.Especially for Lu Yanwei, the governor of the Yichang Army, Dizhou was like a sharp knife in his abdomen, which was very uncomfortable.

Wei Boqiu had a strategic perspective, he wanted to help Shao Shude win Dizhou without bloodshed, so instead of humiliating Xia Housheng, he sent him back to persuade Shao Bo.

Dizhou is on the north bank of the Yellow River, and Ziqing Qidenglai is on the south bank of the Yellow River. It is not a natural Ziqing state. In fact, Youzhou, Chengde, and Cangjing have all led Dizhou. The local soldiers and civilians do not have absolute ownership of Qingzhou. sense.

With this kind of awareness, Wei Boqiu can already be a general.

(End of this chapter)