Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 941 Don't Give Up

Pingyuanjin or Zhang Gongdu east bank, people gathered one after another.

The camp was a mess, completely out of order, without rules.At this time, if he is attacked by elite soldiers, he will definitely blow up the rhythm of the camp.

Fortunately, this place is already within the territory of Yucheng County, Qizhou, and it is still relatively safe. The tense nerves of a group of people relaxed.After a little reorganization for two days, officers at all levels were reappointed, and they were given some miscellaneous weapons, all of which were seized from the Zhuqiong Department of Qizhou before, and then they were sent on the road.

On September 7000, more than [-] Weibo and Huazhou warriors arrived in Zizhou.Before that, they were reissued the Double Ninth Festival rewards: one coin per person and one piece of silk.The number is not large, but it is the current situation, everyone is still very grateful, and morale has recovered.

Li Gongquan was called away early in the morning.

Wang Yanzhang found an open space by the river and washed the horses carefully.He has two horses now.The original horse was used to carry luggage, and the newly acquired steed was used to ride and charge.

The equipment has also been changed, and the daily rations are much more than others.But no one dared to express dissatisfaction, because those who were not convinced were dealt with.Moreover, many Huazhou people rallied around Wang Yanzhang, and some people even called him a "military envoy", which shows that his prestige is not low, let alone unable to move.

After washing the horses, Wang Yanzhang met an acquaintance.In fact, it's not too familiar, it's just that they have met a few times, Liu Renyu, the former Bianzhou Military Academy.

"I thought you, General Wang..." Liu Renyu was a little unbelievable. He just escorted the food and grass from the Biankou cabin, but he didn't expect to see Wang Yanzhang again.

"Isn't there Jishui? How can we transfer grain and grass by land?" Wang Yanzhang asked.

"The king of Xia ordered to build warehouses in the three prefectures of Qi, Di, and Zi to store weapons, food and grass. Furthermore, with so many people and hedgehogs gathered in the area of ​​Zi, Qing and Yan, Jishui has long been busy, and the land route has been transshipment, but Less." Liu Renyu said: "Anyway, the grain is transported from Guanbei, and I heard that many ships will sink on the way. People in Kansai are willing to waste, so let them waste it. Anyway, Henan is exempt from tax."

"The section of the Yinsui Yandan river is indeed very dangerous." Wang Yanzhang smiled and didn't say much.

For Chang'an, the Yellow River in the Shaanxi-Guozhou section is the most dangerous, and then it enters Guanzhong via the Weishui River, and the journey is smooth.But if we set sail from Lingzhou and go down from Yinzhou, the river narrows suddenly, the flow speed suddenly becomes faster, the river is tortuous, and the drop is still large. Duan is more dangerous.

After crossing the Shanguo section and entering the territory of Henan, the surface of the river widens, the velocity of the river slows down, and the Yellow River gradually becomes more gentle, and even large ships can be used. The difficulty of navigation between the two is not the same.

The land in Henan is more fertile than that of Guanbei, the population is larger than that of Guanbei, it can grow more cash crops, the people are richer, and the water system extends in all directions. Even the Yellow River shipping is much easier than you. .

"General Wang voted for King Xia?" Liu Renyu asked.

"Vote for King Xia..." Wang Yanzhang gave a wry smile, and said, "I voted for Li Gongquan. Li Gongquan seems to have voted for King Xia, so I guess."

"What's there to vote for Li Gongquan? It's just a lost dog." Liu Renyu said disdainfully: "You might as well go straight to King Xia. Go to Xiao Fu and Xie Yanzhang. Aren't you on good terms with them? Go find it yourself, and compare yourself to Li Gongquan's subordinates." Fight together and be strong."

"Won't Li Gongquan's troops also be formed into an army? What's the difference?" Wang Yanzhang asked.

"The difference? The difference is huge." Liu Renyu said with a smile: "The thousands of warriors under Li Gongquan may be sent to attack the city soon. Do you think there is any difference? In the past few months, those siege gangsters Soldiers went on and on, I have seen many, and there is no one that is not miserable. The ones who fell from the top of the city were missing arms and legs, the ones were burned and scalded, and there were more than a dozen arrows picked out from their bodies. Count. Do you want to attack the city?"

Wang Yanzhang was silent.

Fighting with the enemy in the field, he is not afraid at all, and even very confident.But siege—forget it, that’s not what humans should do, no matter how brave you are, you will end up alone.

"Zizhou has been under siege for so long, and it still hasn't been broken?" Wang Yanzhang asked suddenly, "Is the defender at the end of their strength?"

"The guard Liu Po ​​is quite capable. He hoarded a lot of supplies in advance and recruited a lot of native soldiers. He can fight wars, win people's hearts and boost morale. It's hard to say what the defenders in the city are like, but you can't Don't send anyone to keep an eye on it. Once you leave, he will go out of the city and fill in a trench to cut off your back, which is always troublesome." Liu Renyu said: "But when I heard that Bochang City was breached, I surrounded it for more than a month. The army saw that the camp on the north bank of Jishui had been broken, and the flames were soaring into the sky, and the reinforcements from Qingzhou were repulsed and could not approach, so they went out of the city to break through and were wiped out."

"There is also Qiancheng County, which is even more outrageous." Liu Renyu said with a smile: "The Yanei army and the Dizhou army attacked the city. There were too many people, and the city wall was directly crushed."

This is the consequence of not repairing the city wall.In history, when the Khitan besieged Weizhou, there were too many people crowded in the upper and lower parts of the city, and the city walls were directly squeezed down, making people speechless.

Wang Yanzhang laughed when he heard this.The Pinglu army was famous as the most powerful vassal in the world back then, with more than ten people in Lianzhou, with millions of household registrations, no less than [-] armored men, and a well-trained cavalry force, much more arrogant than the towns in Hebei up.How did you become like this now?
"If you have a chance, go to Xie Yanzhang and ask him to introduce you to Hu Zhen and Ge Congzhou. Hu Zhen, in particular, is a big celebrity in front of King Xia. He is constantly rewarded with beauties, wealth, and mansions, and he is extremely trusted." Liu Renyu said.

"No. Since I voted for Li Gongquan, how could I bear to abandon him. If I die, I will die. It is fate, and this will be the same in this life." Wang Yanzhang shook his head and said.

"You are really brainless." Liu Renyu sighed, not knowing what to say.

"Beat drums and gather troops!" A loud shout sounded in the distance.

After a while, the rumbling drum sounded, which was a signal for the troops to gather.

"I just came here, and I'm going to attack the city, alas." Liu Renyu didn't expect Li Tangbin to be so ruthless, and looked at Wang Yanzhang helplessly.

Wang Yanzhang saluted and left in a hurry.

Liu Renyu watched for a long time, until his subordinates came to urge him, and then he continued on the road, heading for the newly conquered Bochang and Qiancheng counties.

******
"Wang Shuai, I have also lived in Qingzhou for a long time. Has there been a decision on moving the town?" Li Shouxin asked with a smile in Wang Shifan's mansion in Qingzhou.

He is the son of Li Hang, he has been a martial artist and a county magistrate, and in the end, he inherited his father's career and worked as an envoy.

It is true that he has been in Qingzhou for a long time, and Wang Shifan only met him once at the beginning, and nothing was discussed.Since then, I have been living in the post house, seeing and seeing, and not letting me go, which is like house arrest.It was the first time in more than ten days that Wang Shifan called him into the mansion to ask questions.

"Why is the envoy in a hurry?" Wang Shifan squeezed out a smile and said, "The transfer of the town is of great importance and involves so many things, how can we make a hasty decision? Ziqing has more than [-] warriors, how to arrange them is a big trouble. How many people are there in this world? People are willing to leave their homes thousands of miles to live in the heat of the south?"

"Wang Shuai, the situation waits for no one." Li Shouxin said: "Your army has suffered a series of defeats and its morale is low. Now it can only be trapped in the walled city, and sooner or later it will not be able to persist. Why bother? Maybe Zhu Jin led the army to come Help, yes, he does often go out of Yanzhou now, but since the defeat of Laiwu Valley, this road is no longer accessible. Yizhou has fallen, Mizhou can be captured in a few days, Zhu Jin can't come to Qingzhou."

From Yanzhou to Qingzhou, generally speaking, there are only three roads due to the barriers of mountains and rivers.

The most convenient way is to take the Laiwu Valley, which leads directly to the southern part of Zizhou and Qingzhou. However, the terrain in the valley is complex and there are many places for ambush. Whether it is the Xia army or the Yan army, taking this road is very risky.Xia Jun suffered a loss here and lost a lot of troops. Zhu Jin was also defeated and dared not go here again, so this is a dead end - Huang Chao died in a place called Langhu Valley in the Laiwu Valley Road.

The second way is to bypass Yizhou and take the route that Liu Yu attacked Guanggu (Yidu).But Yizhou has fallen. Although the countryside is very barren and it is impossible to send people to watch it at any time, how can Zhu Jin not consider the way back?
The third is to go north to Yunzhou and arrive at Qingzhou via Qi and Zizhou, but this is bound to conflict with the Hu Zhen and Ge Congzhou groups, and it is impossible.

The continuous mountains dominated by Mount Tai determined that the Shandong battlefield is such a broken situation, and Qingzhou has actually been isolated.After Yizhou was captured, Yanzhou was actually isolated. It was possible for Zhu Jin to escape with others, but that was just a "one-way ticket", and it was impossible to come back after leaving.

"I'm afraid the envoy is exaggerating?" Wang Shiyue, Wang Shifan's brother, said, "There are many soldiers and horses in Yang Xingmi in Huainan, and Wang Maozhang has more than ten thousand troops. He is stationed in Haizhou, and he and Zhang Tingfan in Xuzhou are like horns. They can go north at any time. Your army Xu Su recruited envoy Feng Yin to place his troops under the fortified cities of Xihe and Donghe, and the states of Bo and Ying were extremely empty. When the army comes, it cannot be stopped by the tens of thousands of soldiers from Wuxing and Guzhen. Once the southern line collapses, the hinterland of Xuanwu will be opened, and the siege of Qingzhou will not be solved by itself?"

"I want to teach General Wang to know." Li Shouxin twirled his beard and said with a smile: "Tang Shuai Zhegong has supervised more than [-] soldiers and horses from all walks of life to march eastward, and the Huai people can't take care of themselves. In a few months, maybe the hinterland of Xingmi will be for me. The Huai soldiers from the three prefectures of Xu, Hai, and Si will count as one, so don’t go back.”

Yang Xingmi still values ​​these states in Henan Province.Xu Di's military style is strong, and he has raised silver knives, door guns, and carved flags with strong combat effectiveness. They are an important source of troops for the Huai Army today.Guangling is Yang Xingmi's reason, once slaughtered by Sun Ru, and now a large number of family members of Xuzhou sergeants have moved in. Xuzhou dialect is almost unimpeded in the local area, which can be seen.

The reason why Xu, Hai, and Si prefectures are mentioned is because these places are located on the north bank of the Huaihe River, and Yang Xingmi's navy cannot come ashore to help them fight, so they can only transport grain, grass, and equipment——Huaishui River and Henan Road The Rushui, Weishui, and Huanshui in the south do not freeze in winter, and they are navigable throughout the year. In terms of transportation alone, they are still very important.

Wang Shiyue sneered, seemingly not believing it at all, as for what was going on in his heart, outsiders had no way of knowing.

Wang Shifan didn't speak after hearing this, as if he was deep in thought.

Li Shouxin glanced at them, knowing that the two brothers hadn't given up yet, and he didn't know what to place their hopes on.Could it be that Zhu Quanzhong is training more than 2 horsemen from Pinghai and United Second Army?According to the information obtained from inquiries, there are a total of [-] infantry and [-] cavalry, of which there are only more than [-] veterans. They have only trained for more than seven months, so what can they do?

Li Shouxin decided to suggest that after Li Dutou captured Mizhou, he immediately mobilized his troops east to Denglai, and dealt a severe blow to this army, making Wang Shifan completely give up.

(End of this chapter)