stubborn thief

Chapter 365
The first day of April in the sixth year of Chongzhen.

Liu Chengzong organized the army and divided the army into two groups. One group was led by himself, and the other group was led by Liu Chengzu as the commander. They set the direction of attack respectively.

Liu Chengzu's troops used [-] Xining Guard Banner Army, [-] Zhenhai Battalion, and [-] Mongolian Horse Team to defend Yongdeng City from Liancheng in the north to Zhuanglang in the northeast, and plundered grain and grass along the Zhuanglang River for hundreds of miles.

The main force was led by Liu Chengzong himself, advancing eastward to the mouth of the river, attacking the north and defending the south, cooperated with Liu Chengzu to obtain grain and grass in the Zhuanglang River Basin, and then joined forces to carry the leather rafts to cross the Yellow River south.

All of a sudden, the army came out everywhere, and the Marshal's Mansion, which held the power of a great victory, broke through the scouts in an instant. From the mouth of the river to the side wall on the north bank of the Yellow River, the scouts of the officers and soldiers saw everywhere. Army whit.

They rode straight up on the Chonggang and Junban, crossed the shallow river and deep water with their manes in their arms, and within a day they entered the Shajing Station and threatened Anning Fort.

Within two days, the urgent report was transmitted along the horse post to the four prefectures of Gongchang, Pingliang, Fengxiang, and Xi'an, causing the Drum Tower of Xi'an City thousands of miles away to ring the bell of martial law.

Shaanxi's four-year war to suppress bandits came to an end after last autumn, not just because the Allied Forces of the Five Towns had succeeded in recruiting and killing the peasant army, but more importantly because in the fifth year of Chongzhen, the severe drought in Shaanxi ended and ushered in It's a rare good weather.

Perhaps for people living in the southeastern provinces of Ming Dynasty, the current situation seems to be full of rain and wind, but for the people of Shaanxi, people's hearts have long been filled with exhaustion and numbness in the later period of the war and the rest of their lives after the catastrophe.

Everywhere was torn apart by the flames of war, and before people even had time to recover, they were shocked to hear that the five divisions in the Northwest were all defeated, and everyone was panicked and nervous for a while.

It's not that Liu Chengzong led the Western Army to fight out from the Hehuang Valley, but that the thieves scattered all over the country who had died down would rise again.

Because the Xi'an, Yan'an, Pingliang, and Fengxiang mansions in the sixth year of Chongzhen did not wait for a spring rain until April, and people's hearts were fluctuating. Just around the corner.

Fortunately, it rained in Hanzhong Mansion, and Wang Huhu, the leader of Zhuanglang who led more than [-] thieves to hide in the Qinling Mountains last year, did not come out of the mountain, which guaranteed the logistics route from Guanzhong to Lanzhou.

It is also because of this that the news of the defeat of the officers and soldiers was conveyed so quickly.

On the sixth day when the North Bank of the Yellow River was occupied by Liu Chengzong, Liu Shizi was stationed on the mountain platform outside Anningbao, watching the peach forests along the Yellow River bloom everywhere, and watching the Tang soldiers intercepting the garrison of Anningbao. , lol.

The letter said that he killed the clan and robbed money and food, and distributed it to the people's soldiers to confuse people's hearts.

Just one day ago, his army leveled the Suwang Zhuangzi at the foot of Renshou Mountain, and also smashed open two large warehouses, which were piled up with the rent from Ganzhou's renamed field last year and the year before, and gained a lot.

He asked people to help the poor people around him, and at the same time, he sent three carts of old food to the defenders of Fort Anning, all of which had been stored for a long time and did not look very tasty.

But the defenders of Fort Anning liked it very much.

Liu Shizi likes breaking Wangzhuang the most, even more than playing official warehouses, because the official warehouses in prefectures and counties are generally filled with relief food, but Wangzhuang probably has everything, which can satisfy everything except military weapons and armor. need.

King Su's renamed land in Ganzhou has more than [-] hectares, and there are only renters in the Renshou Mountain Wangzhuang.

According to regulations, 370 three shi of grain, 140 bundles of grass, 750 carts of firewood, 750 catties of medicinal safflower, [-] catties of hemp, [-] cages of charcoal, five stones of black nightshade and purple fruit, eight liters of melon seeds, and broom Five hundred, one thousand boards.

However, the amount Liu Chengzong got was only about a year and a half in stock. From the form, it was not clear that Sufan had taken supplies on a large scale, and most of them were embezzled by others.

Liu Chengzong specially wrote a letter to teach King Su a lesson for this, telling him that I thought your family had a good family tradition, but this time I found out that the world is as black as crows, and you are too wasteful, and the melon seeds piled up in the warehouse are all rotten Don't eat oil.

By the way, I quarreled with King Su, saying that according to the rules, there should be so many things in your warehouse, but I only found two-thirds of them. Where did the rest go?You have to check the moving hamsters in your home carefully, I can't do this next time I come here.

Liu Chengzong only wanted to encircle Lanzhou City, but he had no intention of attacking Lanzhou City. Today's internal and external factors do not allow him to continue to capture the city.

The internal reason is that there are too many surrendered troops in the rear of the army, and the people's hearts are not very stable. Once the siege is frustrated and the rear becomes chaotic, it will affect the efficiency of food collection.

The external reason is that Lanzhou's city defense is too strong, not to mention the fortress group composed of seven cities around it, it is also a super big city itself.

The scale unit of a city is how many miles around the city. Generally speaking, the city is one to three miles away, which is a very standard big castle. It covers an area as large as one or two stadiums, can station one or two thousand troops, and radiates a radius of ten miles around.

Four or five miles from the city is a county government office. If it is seven or eight miles long, it will be a prefectural government office in the northwest where there is less flat land. This standard may be relaxed to about nine miles in places such as Beizhili or Henan.

As for Lanzhou City, there are many small towns with screen guards ranging from one week to three miles. It is a super big city itself, with an inner city with a circumference of six miles and an outer city with a circumference of eighteen miles. There are moats and moats on the west, south, and east sides. , with the Yellow River as the moat directly to the north.

Capturing a city like Lanzhou will benefit Liu Chengzong a lot, but it will be even more beneficial to let it go. As long as the cities near Lanzhou are flattened this time and all the goods outside the city are plundered, in the next year or two, the wealth of the rich will be greatly reduced. The goods will converge to Lanzhou City...just go to Lanzhou next time.

On the south bank of the Yellow River, the remaining governor's standard battalion and the defeated army in the three towns are also ready to guard against death and never give up Lanzhou.

Both sides are facing each other while waiting, Henan is waiting for Liu Chengzong's attack, and Liu Chengzong is waiting for Chengyun.

The arrival of Liu Chengyun inspired the whole army. Hundreds of cowhide and sheepskin rafts were enough for the infantry to quickly cross the Yellow River from all over the river, and cleared the ferry for the cavalry to occupy the iron bridge of the Yellow River.

As soon as Liu Shizi saw him, he ordered the soldiers to send the rafts to the various departments, preparing to avoid the crossing and ambush to cross the river as planned, but was stopped by the nervous carrier: "Brother, there is no rush to attack, take me to the middle of the river first." Army tent."

Seeing that his expression was different, Liu Chengzong nodded immediately.

After entering the tent of the Chinese army, Chengyun finally breathed a sigh of relief, and whispered, "Brother, something happened to the west, and the Tartars are here."

This is what Liu Shizi expected, Huduntu.

Calculating the time, Hudun Rabbit is outside the border of Gansu during the Chinese New Year, and it is almost time to pass through Subei.

Liu Chengzong didn't think it was a big deal, so he patted Chengyun and comforted him: "It's okay, grab enough food from here, Huduntu went from Suzhou to Haibei, and we returned to Xining from Lanzhou, so we happened to meet him at sea."

Who knew that Chengyun raised his brows: "Brother, look at the letter, not only the Jahan Tartars, but also the Wala Tartars from the Tianshan Mountains. The northwest is in chaos."

Wala Tartars?

Liu Chengzong opened the letter, which was written by his father Liu Xiangyu. The letter said that because the Gansu frontier army led by General Yang Jiamo was very strict in defense, Huduntu did not dare to go south through Gansu, so he had to take a detour to Jiayuguan, and sent troops to plunder Guazhou on the way. , Dunhuang, and Hami, and Turpan clashed.

Then Turpan sent troops, and the two sides fought a battle in Hami. According to the intelligence of the Gansu frontier army, it seems that the Huduntu troops in the Han Dynasty did not suffer much loss.

Liu Chengzong just watched halfway, then asked Chengyun: "What do you mean, the Gansu frontier army informed us of information outside the border?"

"No, no, no." Chengyun looked at the whimsical second brother and shook his head quickly: "It's the [-]th, and there are many Gansu guards in the Three Tribulations Meeting. We will know what Yang Jiamo knows, but it will take a little later."

Liu Chengzong was relieved immediately and forgot about Wang Ziyong.

He continued to read the letter, and his father said that after that battle, Huduntu sent people to Juerwan again, but this time he was asking for help, and the stern words were still arrogant, asking Liu Chengzong to attack Hami with him, saying that the Wala Tartars were forming a group A large army is about to attack Qinghai, and Qinghai can no longer accommodate the third person, so they must be driven away.

Master Liu ignored Huduntu at first, saying that the Wala Tartars were obviously bragging when they formed an army to attack Qinghai.

Do you really think our Liu family are all ignorant brats?Our whole family is a Ming Dynasty who knows astronomy and geography, and we know where the Wala Tartars are!
The Tianshan Mountains where the Oirats settled are five thousand miles away from Xining City. They went crazy and formed an army to expedition to Qinghai?

The trouble you caused yourself, why did you ask the Marshal's Mansion to wipe your ass? What's more, when this letter was delivered, Mr. Liu hadn't received the news that the imperial army in the east had been defeated, and there were still a lot of things in his family Well, where are you free?

But immediately afterwards, Liu Xiangyu discovered that things were not as simple as that.

Because soon another group of envoys also came to Juerwan. They claimed to be the leader of the Wara Alliance, the National Teacher Khan, and Heshuo Teda Nayan Borjijin Turubaihu.

Master Liu said that the envoys of Guoshi Khan are more educated and organized than the people of Huduntu, and more like enlightened envoys.

They kowtowed to Mr. Liu with the etiquette of meeting the governor of the Ming Dynasty in Oala, performed three worships and nine kowtows.

These people helped Mr. Liu recall the years when the Wala people were loyal allies of Daming to attack Tumed, and proposed to continue this relationship with Daming's successor, Qinghai Marshal's Mansion, and attack Chahar's Lindan Huduntu together.

Although Mr. Liu said that his eldest son would marry Huduntu's younger sister, the Wala people thought it was not a problem. After their coalition forces completely defeated Chahar, the National Teacher Khan was willing to give all the women in Chahar to the marshal government.

And all the trophies other than women, except for a small part to be set aside as a reward for the Great Khan of Turpan in Eastern Chagatai, the other trophies of Oala Sibu will not be taken at all, and all will be given to the Marshal's Mansion.

Even if they are married, Wala can offer better conditions. They have many women, and most of the leaders of the four tribes of Wala will participate in the expedition against the Han tribe. They have countless sisters and daughters, one, two, ten, twenty One, as long as the Generalissimo speaks, it will be fine.

The National Teacher Khan only needs the Marshal's Mansion to open the passage to Tibet, and to give a gold book, and allow the four Oirats to pay tribute to the Marshal's Mansion.

After Liu Shizi finished reading the letter, Cheng Yun asked, "Brother, who are we helping?"

Liu Chengzong put down the long letter, walked two steps in the tent, did not answer this question, turned to Chengyun and asked, "What do I think?"

"Second Uncle said this is a big deal, and I still need you to make up your mind, but if you ask him, he thinks Wala is more polite, and Huduntu is a barbarian."

Liu Chengzong laughed, sat down slowly, put his hands on the handsome table and thought for a while, then called Chengyun to sit down with him, and said seriously: "There are high-level people in Wala, Huduntu is not a barbarian, he is just an internal relationship I can't even figure out the big idiot who wants to play diplomacy."

Chengyun didn't quite understand, so he sat down and asked, "Then what does the second brother think, let's retreat to fight Tiger Rabbit?"

To be honest, the old man recounted that the envoys of Wala were all praised by him, which made Liu Chengzong's favor for Wala soared, and he almost floated up, thinking that he was the real dragon emperor.

Liu Chengzong shook his head: "Not only can you not retreat, you have to evacuate the area around Lanzhou before going back as planned, and then you have to build a fort at the mouth of the river."

Lanzhou still has tens of thousands of troops, but it has lost the ability to do things. The majestic formation is not his opponent.

As long as he presses the mobile force of this army into Lanzhou City step by step, with his military strength, he can move the entire Lintao Prefecture as he wants, and then leave a strong army to fortify the river mouth, and it will not be a problem for the entire army to retreat.

But to withdraw the army hastily now, Lian Guoshi, You Shilu, Zhang Quanchang and others are not fools. They will definitely guess that there will be changes in the rear. By then, their more than ten thousand officers and troops will be able to do too much.

What's more, the imperial court still has a strong hematopoietic ability in the northwest. If nothing else, it will bring in 5 to [-] second-line troops within three to five months.

After all, Liu Chengzong raised his hand and tapped the letter on the table, and said to Chengyun: "As for the Wala Guoshi and Huduntu, you dig out those useless things, analyze and analyze, is there any difference in their requirements?"

"Huduntu wants me to send troops to help, and Wala Guoshi also wants me to send troops, and he also wants to enter Tibet... If there is any difference between the two, it is Huduntu stupid. You can see all his thoughts, he I really want to stay in Qinghai."

Liu Chengzong spread his hands and said: "But can you know what the Wara State Master thinks? You only know that he is very polite, humble and even safe."

He patted Chengyun on the shoulder, stood up, and said: "We have two opponents. First unite with the idiots to eliminate the smart ones, and first unite with the weak to eliminate the strong ones. Compared with the Wara State Master, Tiger Duntu is weak and stupid .”

Liu Chengzong wrote a letter in his tent, telling his father that the barbarian Huduntu can become polite, but it is difficult for the clever Oara Guoshi to become stupid.

If Huduntu retreats to the south, he can provide him with some support in Haibei and Haixi, but unless Huduntu is defeated and killed, his troops cannot be released into the sea.

Liu Chengzong walked out of the tent and said to Chengyun, "Let's go to Lanzhou first and bring back the food and grass."

After handing over the letter to his trusted guards and sending it back to Juerwan, he said from left to right: "Order the whole army to cross the river!"

　good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)