Fenghou

Chapter 554
In the afternoon, Lu Yihao returned to the mansion. As soon as he returned to the mansion, the eldest son Lu Jin hurried forward and said: "Father, the third uncle is here!"

"Where are the people?"

"In father's study outside!"

Lu Yihao nodded, "Please wait a moment, I'll change my clothes and go over."

"Father, Wei'er has a letter from home."

The second grandson Lu Wei's family letter was naturally forwarded from Chengdu through his in-law Li Jiong in a hurry. In fact, it was a way for Chen Qing and Lu Yihao to communicate.

Lu Yihao cheered up, and quickly asked, "Where is the letter?"

Lu Jin took out the letter and handed it to his father. It was a letter from his in-law Li Jiong, but there was a pigeon letter from Lu Wei at the back.

Lu Yihao took the letter and said, "Go and settle down with Uncle Three, I'll be right over."

Lu Jin's third uncle is Lu Yihao's third younger brother, Lu Qingshan, who has outstanding political achievements and was transferred from Fuzhou to Suzhou last year as the prefect.

Lu Yihao changed into a comfortable long gown and came to the outer study. Lu Qingshan was drinking tea. Seeing his brother coming in, he quickly got up and saluted, "Brother is in good health!"

"I'm fine, when did my third brother come to An'an?"

"I just arrived at noon today, and I have several important approvals to urge the court, so I will make a trip to Lin'an."

Lu Yihao waved him to sit down, and a maid came in to serve tea.

Lu Yihao took a sip of tea and said: "Your approval documents should be stuck with Mr. Qin. I will urge Mr. Qin for you later. It's not a big problem."

"Thank you brother!"

Lu Qingshan whispered again: "There is another important news. I heard that my son-in-law defeated the [-] puppet Qi army in Qinzhou. Now my son-in-law has led the army to go to Shaanxi Road."

Lu Yihao's eyelids twitched, and he asked anxiously, "Who did you hear this news from?"

"My little brother heard about it from a tea merchant who came from Guanzhong. He said that Chen Qing's army attacked Qingzhou and Huanzhou."

Lu Yihao couldn't sit still anymore, and quickly took out a volume of Shaanxi Road Transit Map from the bookcase, and slowly unfolded it for a closer look. The route was obvious. Chen Qing first attacked the northern part of Shaanxi Road, and then attacked Guanzhong in the south.

Only now did he understand that Chen Qing captured Pingliang Mansion last year in order to prepare for the attack on Shaanxi Road this year.

Lu Yihao nodded, "I know about this matter, the third brother must not publicize this matter in the court."

"Brother, don't worry, I have a sense of propriety, and I will never leak it. In fact, I came here this time to tell my brother about it. I dare not even write a letter, because I am afraid that the news will leak."

"You did the right thing. Now the court and Chen Qing have no news. A few days ago, Zhu Shengfei also said that the Jin soldiers would join forces with Xixia to attack Xihe Road, and Xihe Road could not be protected. Now it seems that Zhu Shengfei is talking nonsense."

Lu Qingshan was a little worried: "I also heard a piece of news today, saying that the eldest brother may be resigning from the prime minister, is it true?"

"This statement has always been true. Yushitai has been collecting evidence of my crimes since last year. Even the wharf I built near the river impeached me for encroaching on public land. Fortunately, I have the approval of Lin'an Mansion, otherwise I would really say Unclear."

"Is it because of Chen Qing?" Lu Qingshan asked again.

Lu Yihao nodded, "It has something to do with him, the officials obviously blamed me."

Lu Qingshan frowned and said: "I'm a little confused, what is the relationship between Chen Qing and the imperial court now? Is it a breakup, or is it self-supporting?"

Lu Yihao smiled wryly, "No one can tell. Now that we have lost contact, the imperial court knows nothing about the situation on Xihe Road, but because of the death of the supervisor Wang Mi, the officials are extremely angry with Chen Qing and are determined to dismiss him. It's just that Chen Qing ignored his edict at all, so that the officials have already identified Chen Qing as a rebel, but they didn't make it public. Now Chen Qing has become a taboo in the court, and no one dares to mention him. To the matter of sending troops to Shaanxi Road.

Lu Qingshan was stunned, "No wonder! Today in the Duzhi Division, an official mentioned that last year's tax statistics were incomplete and Xihe Road was missing, but he was scolded by Jia Duzhi. I am still baffled. What a mistake! It turned out that Xihe Road was mentioned."

"That's it. Xihe Road has been selectively forgotten by the court. Officials and generals have been classified as separate books by the Ministry of Officials and the Privy Council. Now, except for some discussions among the people, there is no topic about it in the court."

Lu Qingshan suddenly got a little worried and said: "If Yu Shitai is looking for something to do with elder brother, elder brother has to worry about the second child."

The second child refers to the second younger brother Lu Datong, who is now serving as Yuanzhou's general judge. Lu Yihao was startled, "What's wrong with Datong?"

"I heard that the children of the second elder brother's family have a bad reputation, especially Lu Xian, who hangs out with a group of cronies and friends, relying on his father's power to cause trouble outside and bully good people. I heard about it in Fuzhou last year, which shows his reputation bad."

Lu Yihao said angrily: "I will write to Datong right away, if I don't strictly restrain my children, sooner or later there will be big trouble!"

Chen Qing's [-] troops marched eastward from Pingliang Mansion. He divided his troops into two groups, with [-] troops headed northeast along the way, led by Yang Zaixing and Liu Qiong, and swept Zhenrong Prefecture, Huanqing Prefecture, Qingyang Prefecture, Baoan Prefecture, State and Suide State.

Except for Yanzhou, these six state capitals basically have no garrisons. The northern part was originally occupied by the Xixia people, but the civil war broke out in Xixia, and all the garrisons were withdrawn to the country, so that a garrison blank area was formed.

In this area, only Yanzhou has [-] garrisons to protect the fire oil production area, but for the [-] Song army, it is almost like hitting an egg with a stone.

On the other hand, the main force of [-] troops led by Chen Qing personally entered Yuanzhou from Pingliang Prefecture, and continued to march eastward to attack Ningzhou, Fangzhou, and Fuzhou, and would join the North Route Army in Luojiao County of Fuzhou.

Although there is no garrison on the northern line, all states in the middle of Shaanxi Road have garrisons, especially the central county of Fangzhou, where [-] troops are stationed.

Chen Qing led a [-]-strong army all the way, and the garrisons of Yuanzhou and Ningzhou looked forward to the wind. This afternoon, the army passed through the Huju Valley of Ziwu Mountain and entered the boundary of Fangzhou. It was getting late, and Chen Qing's army camped on the spot. .

A large tent of the Chinese army was set up, and a sand table on Shaanxi Road was placed in the large tent, and a red flag was planted on the camp site where a person was engaged in the sand table.

Xu Changqing, who joined the army from the Intelligence Agency, introduced to the coach Chen Qing and several generals: "The distance from the camp to Zhongbu County is about [-] miles. There are loess and ravines along the way. Generally, there are villages where there are rivers. Generally speaking, Come on, Fangzhou has a relatively large population and is relatively prosperous, especially in the central county, which has a population of nearly [-], but the garrison only has [-] people."

"Is there any possibility that this army will surrender?" General Gao Ding asked.

Xu Changqing shook his head, "It's almost impossible. The other party's commander is a Jurchen commander named Uzabu. He can't surrender to us."

Gao Ding said to Chen Qing: "The opponent has only [-] troops, we can cooperate from inside to outside to break the city!"

Chen Qing smiled slightly: "Actually, a scout army of [-] people sneaked into the city two days ago."

Gao Ding immediately clasped his fists and said, "Humble post, please order me to lead an army of [-] to break through the city!"

Chen Qing nodded, "You can first send someone into the city to find the Ping An Inn near the south gate. That's the inn opened by our intelligence scouts."

"Humble job understands!"

That night, Gao Ding led an army of [-] to leave the camp and head east.

Zhongbu County is a large county. It is the necessary place for Yanzhou and Fuzhou to go south to Guanzhong.

The perimeter of the city wall is about twenty-five miles, and it is tall and strong. Since the county seat is built on a high place, it has the advantage of being condescending, making the county seat easier to defend and harder to attack.

At present, there are [-] garrisons in the county, all of which are Han troops. The [-] state soldiers from East Road and Shaanxi Road have been trained in Guanzhong for two months in the name of intensive training, and then they are assigned to garrison in various places, focusing on Guanzhong, Hanzhong and Jing. Yuan Dao, there are [-] troops deployed in these three places.

The remaining [-] troops were stationed in various prefectures in northern Shaanxi. The central county of Fangzhou was the city where the most troops were stationed, accounting for half of the total force, with a total of [-] troops.

At this time, although the garrison in Zhongbu County had received the information that Chen Qing had started his eastward expedition, they did not feel a strong sense of crisis. After all, Zhongbu County was still relatively far away from Xihe Road.

At noon that day, a small caravan came in from outside the city, leading a dozen donkeys and carrying some cheap goods, mainly medicinal materials. This kind of small caravan had no oil and water, and charged dozens of pennies for passing by. , the soldiers put the caravan into the city.

(End of this chapter)