Fenghou

Chapter 1004 Evacuation
Looking at Shen Guotai's back in a hurry, Zhang Xiao said with a smile: "I thought His Highness wanted to use this opportunity to try street fighting."

Chen Qing shook his head, "If the other party was a Jurchen soldier, I would definitely not let them evacuate, but after all, they are all Han Chinese, killing both sides, countless civilians were killed and injured, but the Jurchens were unscathed, watching jokes on the sidelines, I will not do this kind of thing. "

"I'm afraid there are other reasons!" Zhang Xiao laughed.

"There are various reasons. Once his army breaks out of the city, I will not be able to chase him down in such a dark night, but this is not the main reason. If I don't want to let them go, even if they break out of the city with all their might, more than half of them will be killed or injured. The key is that I don't want my soldiers to suffer too many casualties in street fighting."

Not long after, Shen Guotai came back again, bowed and said: "We have a total of twenty carriages, three thousand horses, and the warehouse has been closed. We will leave Yingchang Mansion before dawn. I only hope that Your Highness will make a promise!"

"Go! I won't go back on what I promised. I will tell Li Cheng to evacuate in an upright manner. If he wants the family members of the soldiers to leave safely, don't play tricks on me!"

"I remember!"

Shen Guotai saluted and was about to leave when Chen Qing stopped him, "Please wait!"

Shen Guotai stopped in his tracks, bowed and said, "If there is anything else, please give orders, Your Highness!"

Chen Qing smiled slightly, "If Mr. Shen is willing to stay, I can continue to appoint you as the general judge of Yingchang Mansion!"

Shen Guotai was stunned, and after a long while, he was touched and said: "Thank you for your kindness, but General Li is not mean to me, I can't forget my righteousness and abandon him!"

"Okay! At that time, everyone was their own master. In the future, you can come to Jingzhao to apply for a job."

"If His Highness is willing to include it in the future, the humble official will definitely come."

"Mr. Shen may wish to recommend some local officials to me. I want to be an honest official with outstanding ability."

Shen Guotai nodded and said: "Since His Highness trusts you, I can recommend two people to His Highness. One is Su Heng, the magistrate of Xuchang County. Although he comes from a wealthy family, he is very upright, has a clear distinction between public and private, and is very capable of doing things. They all admired him very much, and invited him to Bianliang several times, but he always declined.

The other person is Li Yanjun, the magistrate of Yancheng County. The agricultural conditions in Yancheng are only moderate in Yingchang Prefecture, but the grain output of Yancheng has ranked first in Yingchang Prefecture for five consecutive years. It happened to be Li Yanjun's tenure. His ability can be seen , and he is very clean and honest, his salary is not enough to support his family, and he even copies books for others at night. "

Chen Qing was surprised and said: "If such a person is not really honest, he is a traitor!"

"Reporting to Your Highness, Li Cheng once sent someone to spy on him, and the conclusion is that he is really clean!"

Chen Qing nodded and said with a smile: "Then I also look forward to seeing Mr. Jing Zhaoneng again!"

Shen Guotai bowed deeply again, took his leave and left.

Zhang Xiao said with a smile: "Your Highness is really trustworthy in employing people!"

Chen Qing said lightly: "Yingchang Mansion is the best governed mansion in the Central Plains. Sima Zhao Yuan is in front, and Li Cheng is his successor. But the real person in charge of government affairs is this Shen Guotai. He should manage Yingchang Mansion for two years. Now, if he was a corrupt and treacherous person, Yingchang Mansion would have been in a mess long ago."

"Your Highness knows people!"

Chen Qing smiled again and said, "I will use the two he recommended, but I will also arrange intelligence scouts to observe them. If the names don't match the facts, just replace them."

At this time, Li Cheng's [-] troops had assembled. Li Cheng and the family members of other important generals were sitting in twenty carriages. Each of them was holding a cloth bag, which was packed with soft goods. Three thousand cavalry guarded them. family.

At this time, Shen Guotai came back on horseback under the guard of a dozen cavalrymen. Li Cheng asked, "What do you say?"

"Chen Qing said that he would not go back on what he promised. He also said that the general should evacuate in an upright manner. Don't play tricks with him, otherwise he will not be able to guarantee the safe departure of the soldiers' families."

Li Cheng sighed inwardly, the family members of the soldiers were taken as hostages, and it would be hard to say what happened in the future, but at this moment the arrow had already been fired, and he had no choice but to shoot, and it was too late to regret it now.

Li Cheng had no choice but to put the fate of himself and the soldiers on Chen Qing's promise, and he ordered: "Let's go!"

The [-]-strong army set off in a mighty manner, with [-] cavalry guarding [-] carriages in the middle of the team. After a while, the army arrived at the north city gate. The soldiers of the Song Army watched coldly as the army passed through the city gate.

The [-] troops walked out of the north city gate and headed north quickly along the official road. After a short time, the team disappeared into the thick night.

But just a dozen miles away from the enemy brigade, Tang Qian led [-] cavalry to follow far away, keeping a distance of more than ten miles.

After Li Cheng got the report, he immediately understood that this was the surveillance cavalry of the Song Army, and he should not attack him. He immediately ordered: "Send the whole army, speed up!"

At dawn, Li Cheng's team walked into Songlou Town. Songlou Town is located at the junction of Yingchang Mansion and Kaifeng Mansion. It is under the jurisdiction of Yanling County of Kaifeng Mansion, which means that Li Cheng left Yingchang as agreed. government.

Not long after, Tang Qian also led [-] cavalry to turn around and run towards Xuchang County.
The Western Army has lifted the martial law in Xuchang City, and [-] troops have already left the city. Even if a small number of soldiers are left in the city, they will not be able to make waves. Besides, Chen Qing also warned Li Cheng not to play small tricks. The family members of the soldiers are hostages. .

Although the martial law was lifted, the city was still very quiet, with few pedestrians, and almost no shops in the city were open.

The Western Army posted a notice to relieve the people, so all civilian husbands who participated in the defense of the city were pardoned, and they were not held accountable for their crimes. They reassured the people that they don’t have to worry about it and can live a normal life. At the same time, the Western Army provided porridge in the city.

Three porridge sheds have been set up on the street, and the army began to provide porridge. Although the street was deserted, the people who received the porridge lined up in front of each shed.

What Chen Qing is most concerned about is the warehouse. The warehouse is a city within a city. It is located in the middle of the county, with a circumference of about eight miles and occupies [-]% of the area of ​​Xuchang County. The most food in the warehouse is grain. After all, Yingchang Prefecture is the largest grain-producing state in the Central Plains. In the government, [-] shi of food was stored, which has exceeded Bianliang, but other materials are much less than Bianliang.

There are also armored bows and crossbows, which can probably arm about [-] people. From this, we can see the characteristics of Li Cheng's leading troops. He would rather be smart than too many. He turned all [-] civilians into the army, and there are [-] troops in the city. , but such an army is also the easiest to defeat.

Once the two sides set up the battlefield, the army will even collapse without fighting. What kind of combat capabilities will the converted army of [-] civilians have, and let them defend the city? But in essence, Li Cheng is well versed in the truth.

There are also kerosene, gunpowder, cloth, pig iron, copper ingots, medicinal materials, tea cakes, tung oil, wood, as well as tents, war drums, flags, camp fences and other materials.

But Chen Qing found that there were no copper coins, gold and silver, and no silk.

The warehouse manager explained: "Silk is not in stock. There used to be more than [-] bolts of silk and satin, which were transported to Lin'an by Li Cheng and sold. They were all exchanged for cloth and shipped back. , a total of [-] horses."

"Is there no local cloth? How about copper coins, gold and silver?"

Chen Qing asked: "Did he distribute it to soldiers or family members last night?"

The warehouse manager was taken aback, and quickly explained: "Last night, there was absolutely no allocation to soldiers and family members. Shen Tong said that he had reached an agreement with His Highness to close the warehouse, so he didn't open the warehouse door, and closed it directly."

"Then can you explain why?"

The warehouse supervisor wiped the sweat from his forehead and said: "There will be no gold and silver, and there will be no official warehouses. The fourth prince has a strict order that gold and silver from all over the country must be sent to Bianliang, and private storage is not allowed. Copper coins are It was used to pay the military salary, but it was not enough, so it was offset with cloth, so there would be no copper coins, and all the cloth was used to supplement the military salary.”

At this time, Zhang Xiao came over and said with a smile: "Your Highness, I have talked with Suzhi County, and it was really good. Do you want to see him, Your Highness?"

Chen Qing nodded, "I'm going to the county government now!"

(End of this chapter)