Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 787 A plate of loose sand (please subscribe!)

...

Zhang Jun's so-called two-dimensional strategy is actually not very clever. It is just that he first enters Shu to manage Sichuan and Shaanxi. land.

but--

Although Zhang Jun's plan to achieve both is not brilliant, Zhao Gou is tempted!
The western region, including Sichuan and Shaanxi, is a place that Zhao Gou both loves and hates.

The Western Army is undoubtedly the strongest army in the Song Dynasty.

However, due to the confusion of the command system (Shaanxi has six units of the Economic and Strategic Appeasement Department, and there is also a unit of the Hedong Economic System Envoy), and Fan Zhixu, who was acting as the Shaanxi System and Settlement Envoy, was defeated by the Three Thousand Gold Army and lost his prestige Therefore, it was difficult for Wang Yan to lead the army westward to join forces with Zhang Xian, and in only one month, he successively attacked Dongcheng, Fengxiang Mansion, Chang'an, Qinzhou and other places in Yan'an Mansion, and defeated them. The main force of the three economic and strategic appeasement divisions, Fuyan, Yongxingjun, and Qinfeng.

Later, people from all over Shaanxi responded to the call of the Fuyan Road Economic and Strategic Appeasement Division, and rebels fought against the Chinese army to defend their homes and the country—mainly for the former.

People in the west are very soil-loving, and defending their own homeland is something that flows in their bones and is deeply rooted.

Therefore, all of a sudden, there were heroes everywhere, and several rebel armies led by Meng Di, Zhong Qian, Zhang Mian, Zhang Jian, Bai Bao, and Li Jin all had strong combat effectiveness, and even dared to fight the Chinese army head-on.

With the cooperation of these rebels, the Fuyanlu Jinglue Appeasement Department recovered Tongzhou in one fell swoop, and took advantage of the emptiness of the Chinese army stationed in Shanzhou to send troops to recover Shanzhou in one fell swoop.

Tongzhou is located on the north bank of the Weishui River to the east of Chang'an. Due to the narrow terrain on the south bank of the Weishui River, it is difficult to deploy heavy troops. Therefore, Tongzhou has become an important town for attacking or defending Chang'an.

Not only that, Tongzhou is also an important support point for the defense system of Tongguan and Pujinguan.

Therefore, when the Song army took control of Tongzhou, it cut off the contact between the Chang'an Central Army and the Tongguan and Pujinguan Central Army.

The rebel army's occupation of Shanzhou also cut off the direct communication between the Shaanxi Central Army and the Henan Central Army.

Therefore, when Zhang Xian and Wang Yan, the commanders-in-chief of the Shaanxi Central Army, heard that Shaanxi and Tongzhou had been recaptured by the Song army, and their retreat was cut off, they did not dare to attack Xizhou again, and hurriedly led their troops to retreat eastward.

Xihe Road Jinglu appeasement envoy Zhang Shen sent Song generals Zhang Yan and Liu Weifu to lead the army to cover up the Chinese army retreating eastward.

But Liu Weifu didn't want to be under Zhang Yan's command, so he led his army out of Baoji from Wushan without authorization to attack the rangers of the Chinese army.

As soon as Liu Weifu left, Zhang Yan's troops were greatly weakened, and he underestimated the enemy. Therefore, he was ambushed by the Chinese army at Wulipo near Fengxiang, and was defeated by the Chinese general Yang Congyi. Zhang Yan himself was also in Wulipo die in battle.

After defeating Zhang Yan, Zhang Xian changed his mind. He was no longer in a hurry to attack Tongzhou and Shanzhou to connect with Hedong and Henan. main force.

Yang Congyi's troops quickly defeated the main force of the Jingyuan army from the flank.

It's a pity that just when Yang Congyi's troops were about to completely wipe out the main force of the Jingyuan Army, Qu Duan, the commander of the Jingyuan Army, suddenly led his troops out, and then repelled Yang Congyi's troops, keeping the position west of Qingxiling.

Since then, Xi Gong, the appeasement envoy of the Jingyuan Road, has been emptied by Qu Duan, and Qu Duan has become the actual leader of the Jingyuan Army.

Afterwards, Qu Duan took advantage of the gap between the wars to recruit refugees in Jingyuan, expanded the army and trained troops, and gradually became a stronger force in the Western Army. In his jurisdiction, the social order was stable, and anyone who passed by could get the army. Grain supply for rabbits.

Therefore, Qu Duan not only became the talker of the Jingyuan Army, but also gradually became the actual leader of the Western Army of the Song Dynasty (not an absolute leader, but there were more generals of the Western Army who listened to Qu Duan). The leader, Fan Zhixu, has lost power now, and there are not many generals left who listen to him.

Fan Zhixu's ability to fight is not good, but his character is absolutely fine.

Since he could no longer control the western region, Fan Zhixu immediately wrote a letter to the Southern Song court, asking Zhao Gou to send someone to replace him, so that the strongest western army in the Song Dynasty could not be left in a state of disunity and finally be defeated by the Chinese army one by one , Moreover, Fan Zhixu also recommended Xi Yi, Li Mida, Tang Zhong and other capable and loyal generals and officials to replace him.

Since the Song Dynasty, there has been one emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, counted as one, and none of them trusted generals, but when it came to Zhao Gou, it reached its peak.

Zhao Gou, who has seen military generals rebelling many times, has extremely distrusted generals.

What's more, Qu Duan was not the leader of the Great Song Xijun elected by Zhao Song at all, but he himself seized Xi Gong's power, and he himself took advantage of the chaos to grow stronger.

In Zhao Gou's view, Qu Duan's approach is a typical warlord, and he might become the second Li Yan.

Let me ask, under such circumstances, how could Zhao Gou feel at ease to hand over Da Song's hope of Da Song Xijun to Qu Duan?

But then again, the reason why the Western Front was defeated but not defeated, and the reason why the Sichuan-Shaanxi Line was still under the control of the Southern Song Dynasty, was thanks to Qu Duan who led people to resist.

In this case, Zhao Gou really couldn't use Qu Duan to operate.

More importantly, Quduan is not the only problem on the Sichuan-Shaanxi line.

Before the signing of the "Great Unification Agreement" in the Song Dynasty, Zhang Xian and Wang Yan led their armies to retake Tongzhou and Shanzhou respectively, and continued to advance westward, recovering Fengxiang, Chang'an and other places successively.

Later, the "Datong Peace Agreement" was signed, Zhang Xian and Wang Yan gave up Fengxiang and Chang'an, retreated eastward along the Weishui River, gathered in Tongzhou and Hezhongfu, and guarded the Xinhe Bridge to ensure traffic on both sides of the Yellow River and ensure When recovering the Sichuan-Shanxi line in the future, you can directly send troops westward.

After the Chinese army withdrew to the east, Qu Duan led his army into Qinzhou, while Liu Xiliang and Wang Zeren led their troops into Fengxiang and Chang'an, each occupying one side.

Soon, Liu Xiliang was expelled from Fengxiang by volunteer soldiers, so he had to seek refuge in Quduan.

But Qu Duan killed Liu Xiliang and annexed his subordinates.

At this time, Wang Zeren was also expelled from Chang'an by Guo Yan, the newly appointed Yongxing Army's economic strategy appeasement envoy.

At that time, the small imperial court of the Southern Song Dynasty didn't care about the western region at all, and could only let Fan Zhixu continue to control the Sixth Route Army in Shaanxi.

But Fan Zhixu's abilities are too limited, and his prestige has been wiped out by the Jin army, it is really hard to convince the public.

Fan Zhixu had no choice but to promote Qu Duan to be the training envoy of the Jizhou regiment, and act as the capital commander of his Temperance Department.

However, Qu Duan didn't appreciate it - when Qu Duan learned that Meng Di and other leaders of the rebel army had accepted Fan Zhixu's command, he was displeased, so he issued an announcement saying that the Chinese army had returned across the river and the fighting had stopped. Don't delay the farming season and so on, and then use this as an excuse to order the disbandment of all the rebels south of the Weihe River, and forcibly suppress the vigorous anti-China movement of the people.

As a result, the people along Yanyan Road were terrified, fearing that the Chinese army would attack again, so they migrated one after another, which caused panic in the whole west.

It can be said that the current Sichuan-Shanxi line and the current western region are in a mess and divided by warlords.

This is also one of the reasons why Zhao Gou was unwilling to enter Shu.

It is a good thing that Zhang Jun is willing to go to Shu for Zhao Gou to operate the Sichuan-Shanxi line.

Let's not talk about the back road that Zhang Jun said.

If the Southern Song Dynasty wanted to regain their homeland, even if it was just to protect themselves, they could not do without the most powerful Western Army in the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, it is impossible for Zhao Gou to keep the Sichuan-Shanxi line and the western region in such chaos.

Moreover, there is no one in Zhao Gou's hands who is more suitable than Zhang Jun to manage the Sichuan-Shanxi line and the western region.

Therefore, without much consideration, Zhao Gou appointed Zhang Jun as the Xuanfu envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi. Heart, to manage the Sichuan-Shanxi line and the western region for the Song court...

……

(End of this chapter)