Fenghou

Chapter 996 Raid
Caizhou is located in the south of Yingchang Prefecture. It has a large area, with hilly and mountainous areas in the west and vast plains in the middle and east. The hills are densely forested, while the plains are endless farmland.

Tang Qian led [-] cavalry and [-] supply camels to march eastward, passing through the forested hills and entering the vast Great Plains.

Caizhou belonged to Li Cheng's territory. There were originally [-] garrisons, but all the troops were transferred to Xuchang City, so Caizhou did not have a single soldier garrisoned.

The Western Army marched on the wide official road, with yellow and green wheat fields on both sides. The wheat has turned yellow, and the harvest season will begin in one month.

In the distance is a small river, and there are large and small villages scattered along the small river. Many people came to watch the excitement on the official road. When they found that the army that came was the Sichuan-Shaanxi Army, they immediately shouted in surprise, Flying back to report the news, the village was boiling, and people helped the old and the young to rush to the official road to welcome the arrival of the Western Army.

Many old people were supported by children, and they were so excited that they burst into tears. Dozens of young men asked to join the army, and more than a dozen healthy women carried baskets of bread and pots of hard-boiled eggs and stuffed them into the arms of soldiers. Holding the self-brewed rice wine jar, pouring the rice wine that has been preserved for many years into the soldiers' bowls, Tanshi Hujiang is such a grand occasion.

For the first time in more than ten years, the Song army appeared on the land of the Central Plains. How could the people who had been devastated by the Puppet Qi and the Jin Kingdom not be very excited.

The [-] cavalrymen of the Song Army received a triumphant welcome along the way. Two days later, the army entered Ruyang County, the state capital.

The county magistrate, surnamed Yu, came from a wealthy local family, and belonged to the out-and-out local snakes. The general officials all ran away, but the local snakes would not escape. They did not stand in line, but were loyal to their own family. whoever they obey.

Ten thousand cavalry did not enter the city, but stationed in a ready-made barracks outside the city. Tang Qian entered the city with more than a hundred cavalry.

The city is very lively, all the shops on both sides of the street are shouting one after another, all kinds of food stalls are full of the streets, and the restaurants are also full of guests. It still looks very prosperous, not the slightest depression.

"What does Li Cheng say? Direct taxation and indirect taxation are a lot of exploitation, and salt can be sold for several hundred yuan a catty, but Li Cheng can restrain military discipline, and there are very few cases of soldiers under his rule doing anything wrong, so everyone is satisfied. , so the business is relatively prosperous, and you don’t have to worry about being extorted.”

Yu Xiancheng introduced the situation in the city to Tang Qian all the way, but Tang Qian was obviously not interested in this.

"How many warehouses are there in the city?" Tang Qian asked.

"Two warehouses!"

Yu Xiancheng hurriedly said: "One official warehouse, one military warehouse!"

"Take me to see the military warehouse, and please ask the county magistrate to do two more things for me."

"The general obeys orders!"

"Help me find two businessmen who just came from Yingzhou and Chenzhou. I want to know about the situation in Chenzhou and Yingzhou!"

"I'll go find it right away!"

Yu Xiancheng took Tang Qian to the military warehouse and hurried to find someone.

The warehouse manager was surnamed Wang. He welcomed Tang Qian into the official warehouse a little nervously and said: "There are not many supplies in the warehouse. There are only [-] shi of grain and [-] dans of fodder. The other supplies for soldiers and armor have been taken away. A batch of medicinal materials."

Ten thousand shi of grain and [-] dan of fodder are enough for the army, and medicinal materials are also useful. Tang Qian asked again: "How do they usually transport the food and supplies?"

"Use a boat to go to Rushui, but I know that Li Cheng has transferred the grain and grass in the warehouse to Li Qiong, and the boat sent by Li Qiong will come to transport it away in the next two days."

Tang Qian was very interested in this news, and he asked again: "Where did the ship come from? Where did it go?"

"The humble job only knows that the ships come from Chenzhou."

At this time, Yu Xiancheng brought two businessmen over, both of whom came from Chenzhou and Yingzhou early this morning. The businessman from Yingzhou said: "The villain came from Ruyin County, Yingzhou. Thousands of garrisons have been transferred to Yingchang Mansion, currently there is no garrison in Yingzhou."

Another businessman said: "There is a garrison in Xiangcheng County, Chenzhou, about two to three thousand people, but it seems that it is not Li Cheng's army, but Li Qiong's army."

"How do you know it's Li Qiong's army?"

"We all know that the flag of their chief general is in Quzi, and they have gathered a lot of supplies in Xiangcheng."

Xiangcheng is a small county in the south of Chenzhou. It is not the prefecture of Chenzhou. The prefecture is in Wanqiu, but Xiangcheng is a famous shipping transit city. Many large warehouses were built there in the Song Dynasty.

Reminiscent of what the warehouse manager said just now, Li Qiong would send a fleet to transport the grain and grass to Chenzhou. Tang Qian had a vague guess. I am afraid that Li Qiong's army is about to enter Chenzhou.

Tang Qian immediately found Yu Shouzhong, the leader of the scouts, and said to him: "You immediately take two scouts, one to Bozhou, I want to know the main force of Li Qiong's army, and the other to Xiangcheng to learn about the enemy forces in Xiangcheng. and the situation of food supplies, especially the deployment of enemy troops."

"I understand!" Yu Shouzhong saluted and left in a hurry.

The next morning, a fleet of [-] flat-bottomed cargo ships arrived in Ruyang County. Not surprisingly, the fleet was captured by the Song army together with the [-] soldiers it escorted.

After the Song Army conducted the interrogation, they quickly learned about the general situation. The fleet really came from Xiangcheng County. At present, Xiangcheng County has gathered a large amount of grain and grass materials, guarded by [-] soldiers.

Tang Qian immediately made a decision and ordered his lieutenant general Cheng Feng to lead the fleet and camel team back, while he led [-] cavalry to rush towards Xiangcheng County.

Xiangcheng County is about two hundred and fifty miles away from Ruyang County in Caizhou. Although Li Qiong's army and a large amount of food and supplies appeared in Xiangcheng County, Tang Qian couldn't figure out Li Qiong's intention. Li Qiong wanted to lead the army to Chenzhou , but also to transport grain and grass materials back to Bozhou.

The cavalry rushed all the way, and arrived at Xiangcheng County in the evening of the next day. Xiangcheng County was close to Yingshui, and the warehouse group was built beside the Yingshui Wharf outside the city.

Twenty miles away from Xiangcheng County, Tang Qian's cavalry stopped. At this time, the scouts sent by Yu Shouzhong also rushed back to report.

The scouts pointed to a sketch and said to Tang Qian: "There is a wall around the warehouse, about ten feet high, but no one can stand on it. The barracks of the [-] troops is next to the warehouse. I haven't asked how much food there is in it. Another fleet arrived this morning to transport food, I asked about it, the fleet came from Qiao County, Bozhou, and the fleet has not yet left, it is moored on the water, there are thousands of ships.”

Since it came out of Bozhou, it must be that Li Qiong's army is about to enter Chenzhou. Chenzhou's strategic position is much more important than Caizhou. To the north of Chenzhou is Kaifeng Mansion, to the northwest is Yingchang Mansion, and to the north In the northeast is Yingtianfu. If a war breaks out in Chenzhou, the Jurchen of Yingtianfu can go south to support at any time.

Tang Qian is worthy of being an experienced general. He immediately decided to use only a thousand cavalry to attack the enemy to hide his strength.

The night had not completely fallen, and the soldiers in the barracks were busy eating. At this moment, the soldiers heard a thunderous sound, rumbling from not far away. Many soldiers stood up in surprise with bowls in their hands. Look around for the source of the sound.

Suddenly someone shouted at the gate of the barracks: "Run! The enemy cavalry is coming."

The soldiers stood blankly for a moment, and suddenly there was a panic, and they fled in all directions.

"Boom!" With a loud noise, the battalion fence was knocked open, like the Yellow River bursting its embankment, and thousands of cavalry rushed in from outside.

The cavalry soldiers of the western army killed everyone they saw, their heads rolled and their corpses were strewn all over the ground. The tents also caught fire.

The [-] cavalrymen chased and killed them mercilessly, and stopped after driving for more than ten miles. Nearly half of the [-] soldiers were killed.

At this time, the soldiers were still in a state of ignorance, and all of them were unarmed and unarmed. Thinking of the ruthlessness of the opponent's killing, none of the soldiers had the courage to look back and check, and they didn't even dare to stay any longer, lest the Song army would come after them. Flee in the direction of Bozhou.

(End of this chapter)