Han Zuo Gaomen

Chapter 877
Although the Huainan Army did not conduct any large-scale military operations in the past few years, Shen Mu and other leading generals were not idle.Compared with Jiangdong, the Central Plains is a completely different combat environment.

The so-called land of the four wars means that battles may break out at any time and any place.There is almost no danger in the four directions, and it is a very suitable area for rogues to commit crimes.Moreover, the development level of the Central Plains is much higher than that of Jiangdong. Often, if a gangster ignores it a little, it may grow up quickly, looting and gaining all the talents.

Shen Mu was in Qiao County earlier, and his main opponent was the Chen Guang Rebel Army entrenched in the west of Yanzhou. After several years of stalemate, he also knew the rules of survival in this territory better.Because there is no danger to defend, there is no need to stick to one place. The rebellious army is scattered among the countryside and eats everywhere. Unless there is some big target to cooperate with, most of the time they will not gather together and rush into it. Even the main force of the rebellious army is not clear.

For example, if a bird lies in a thorn bush, it is difficult to catch if it does not fly.As for the so-called miscellaneous thorns, it is the intricate relationship between villages and villages.This relationship network itself is not very harmful, but once it is formed, it can play a great role.

It is useless to talk about righteousness and justice or the rise and fall of the king's career to those ordinary people in the countryside. They only choose relatives and close friends to help each other.Even though Chen Guang himself is a rebel subordinate to Jiehu, he has a friendly face in front of the villagers. Even if he loots, he will not disturb the villagers within the sphere of influence, and even helps them protect the villagers. As a result, he was supported by the villagers, and even took the initiative to donate property to fund thieves.

When Shen Mu first arrived in Qiao County, he sent people to roam the countryside and announced that Wang Shi would recover this area.However, some villagers directly looted the Huainan army's cattle, horses, livestock and supplies. After being caught, they still spoke plausibly. It is necessary to inclusively benefit the localities, otherwise it will be no different from those tyrants from the Jie country.

Shen Mu also knew that it was those local thieves who incited the people to disown the Huainan army. At that time, he was still young and vigorous, and he caught the thief and beheaded it to show the public.On the day of the execution, thousands of villagers even surrounded the execution ground, and some village leaders were elected to negotiate conditions with Shen Mu. In fact, their original intention was to invite the nostalgia, coerce Shen Mu to obey, and divide up the power.

Shen Mu was originally from the sect of Jiangdong's great thieves, how could he not be clear about these village tricks.At that time, the Huainan army also carried the power of breaking the Jiehu, and simply beheaded the leaders of these township clans together with the thieves.

At that time, he was happy, but the situation in Qiao County collapsed because of this. Those clan sects publicized the tyranny of the Huainan army and Shen Mu's indiscriminate killing of innocent people in the countryside, encouraging the villagers to flee in droves.It was also fortunate that there were no strong enemies around at that time, which gave Shen Mu room to split up the suppression, and the situation was stabilized after killing a group of villagers who had escaped too much in the cold winter.

But in this way, the relationship between the Huainan army and the local village clan also fell to a freezing point.When the severe cold was at its peak and the Huainan garrison had all shrunk to Qiaocheng, there was a Xiangzong who seduced Chen Guang's rebellious army and marched directly to Qiaojun city!If it weren't for the Huainan Army's elite and brave, Shen Mu was also a mighty soldier who joined the army when he was young. He would have almost died in Qiao County, at the hands of these village clans!

After the beginning of spring, Huainan increased its army again, giving Shen Mu more strength to clean up the countryside.After investigating the attack on Qiao County, it turned out that as many as 27 village clans were involved, and hundreds of people were killed just because of their direct participation.As for other participating villagers, there are thousands of them.

In the end, it was the Huainan Internal History Office that gave Shen Mu great support, and thousands of households were confiscated and conscripted into Huainan hard labor.If the Huainan Internal History Office was a little timid at that time, even if Shen Mu was not accused of crime, he would be dismissed and sent back to the county, and another moderate person would be sent to guard the county.The consequence of such persistence is that a large number of households fled north with their families, as if Chen Guang's entrenched place in the north was a paradise for benevolent rule.

Later, the Huainan Metropolitan Government promulgated an order that anyone in the township clan who violated the system, messed up or abused the people would be killed upon verification.This also caused an uproar in the whole of southern Henan. For a while, a large number of village clans fled, and even simply surrounded themselves behind closed doors, refusing to accept the orders of the Huainan army.

The reason why southern Henan has stabilized lies in the rise of the city trade in Runan.Although the Huainan Governor's Mansion did not grant political privileges to these township sects, it made them a lot of profits through trade.At the same time of benefit induction, and the removal of those who persisted in evil by force, and large-scale recruitment of wandering food for reclamation, it took nearly two years to digest the area in southern Henan.

After guarding Qiao County for several years, although he didn't gain any great military exploits, Shen Mu's personal ability and vision have been greatly expanded, especially when he realized that everything should not be relied on by fighting, and that he should be gentle in addition to being tough.Just like the Huainan Governor's Mansion manages the south of Henan, it is supplemented with huge profits in addition to strong troops.

A few years back, when the Huainan army was fighting against the Shihu army, the Jiehu army was not insignificant, while the Huainan army was at an absolute disadvantage.At that time, a large number of refugees in southern Henan fled, and the strength of the Jie soldiers could not stop them.So even if you have a strong soldier in hand, you really can't be proud of it.

The truth can be explained clearly in a few words, but what can be said may not be done, but with the experience of guarding Qiao County for several years, and the price that he almost paid with his life, Shen Mu is really unforgettable about this.

He also knew the significance of his trip out of Pengcheng this time. Even with the premise of communication between Xi Jian and Shen Zhezi, the Xuzhou army might not be happy to see him cross the border.Therefore, whether Liu Zheng can be successfully intercepted and wiped out is related to whether he can successfully gain a foothold in Pengcheng in the future.

As a guest army, although Xuzhou's own problems were to be solved, since Shen Mu would enter Pengcheng later, he didn't have to expect much help from the Xuzhou army.At least in terms of news communication, the Xuzhou Army should not cooperate too much.

So when Shen Mu arrived in Pengcheng a few days ago, although the small number of Xuzhou troops stationed here happily handed over the city defense, they pretended not to know the news about Liu Zheng's rebellious army.As for whether this statement is true or false, there is not much discussion about it. Shen Mu believes that the Xuzhou Army would not deliberately hide it to harm him, and at the same time, he can guess that the Xuzhou Army probably wants to complete the final chaos by himself.

After all, Liu Zheng's rebellious army has been entrenched in Xuzhou for several years, but it was finally wiped out by the Huainan army. This is really unacceptable to the Xuzhou army.They probably prefer to see themselves staying in Pengcheng so foolishly. Even if they stay in the future, they will definitely not dare to speak loudly in the future because they failed to complete the first half of the agreement between the two towns.

Shen Mu especially knew that leaving Pengcheng by himself was related to whether his cousin could successfully take over Xuzhou in the future, so naturally he would not sit idle and wait for the battle.With the new arrival of the Huainan army, even the surrounding terrain of Pengcheng is blurred, and without the notice of the Xuzhou army, it is impossible to deploy defenses and intercept them in advance.

So at the beginning of his entry into the town, he invited the clans of the villages around Pengcheng to offer a reward for Liu Zheng's rebellious army, and he paid full attention to the power of these clans.So when Liu Zheng's rebellious army moved into Peijun, Shen Mu probably had a grasp of his army's movements.Although the follow-up movement trajectory of the rebellious army became unpredictable, Shen Mu did not need to grasp the specific movements of the rebellious army in real time at all, but directly led the army to fortify around Dangshan Mountain.

Perhaps the Xuzhou army was also worried about not knowing where the rebellious army was going, so they had no way to set up defenses to intercept them, but Shen Mu didn't have this kind of trouble.After the rebel army entered Peijun, they would either turn to Peize via Dangshan Mountain, which is the direction he was fortified, or continue to flow northwest and turn to Suiyang, Liangjun.

If the army chooses the former, then there is nothing to say, Shen Mu has already prepared troops in this position and waited for the rabbit.If the army chooses the latter, then it will completely enter the territory of Yuzhou, and it is very likely that they have already contacted Chen Guang of Chen Liu.

After Shen Mu settled in Pengcheng, he was replaced by the veteran general Han Huang and five thousand Huainan cavalry from Qiaojun, hoping to use Liu Zheng as a bait to draw out part of Chen Guang's melodies and wipe them out with thunder!Therefore, if Liu Zheng chooses the latter, he will only die faster, and by the way, he will invite some of Chen Guang's tribe to be buried with him.

After the scattered rangers discovered the traces of Liu Zheng's rebellious army, Shen Mu was still a little bit lost.He really hoped that Liu Zheng could collude with Chen Guang and provide Han Huang with a fighter.After all, he has guarded Qiaoliang for several years, and the existence of Chen Guang's rebellious army has become a resentment in his heart.If he could use this to eliminate some of them, even if he didn't do it himself, Shen Mu would be very pleased.

"Obviously a smooth road ahead, the old thief wants to die, it's really disgusting!"

After the ranger reported the enemy's whereabouts, Shen Mu immediately led his army to come.This Liu Zheng was lucky, the range of Dangshan Mountain was hundreds of miles wide, and as long as there was a blank area of ​​more than ten miles, Liu Zheng's rebellious army could pass through quietly.If Shen Mu hadn't spread the rangers widely in the area, maybe Liu Zheng might have quietly passed by.

Liu Zheng's choice of Xiangxian County as the gathering place was not random. To the east and north of Xiangxian County, there are some lush Nozawa reed ponds as shelters, which is not conducive to the large-scale assembly of the army.Moreover, although the city is dilapidated, the high hills in the north can effectively prevent the cavalry from charging.Even if you are unfortunate enough to be surrounded here, you can see a little bit based on the terrain, and then find a way out.

But unfortunately, what he met was the Huainan army.Especially for the front-line combat troops of the Huainan Army, fighting against special terrain and extreme environments has been the main content of training in the past few years.After the preparations for the Huainan Army's frontline battle formation were completed, two thousand soldiers with swords and shields slowly pushed forward to the foot of Gao Gang.

It wasn't until this time that the [-] knights on the left flank, which were set up to deter the rebels from attacking, withdrew from the front line, and brandishing their horses, which were more than ten feet long, rushed out a path in the reeds and detoured to the flanks of the rebels. The formation of the rebellious army was shaken, and they immediately launched a charge.

"Refrain from death, act recklessly without forgiveness!"

The loud drums were sounded, and the shouts of the Huainan Army resounded through the heavens and the earth here.

"Xiang Nian Jilong is cruel and puts my brothers and feet in a desperate situation. If I didn't fight hard, my bones would have sunk into the river back then, and my flesh and blood would feed on fish. When we meet Xiao'er again today, are you willing to fight with me to survive? As long as you get past the obstacles here, you can advect the flow Up to Hebei, the husband's career is determined at this moment, kill!"

Fleeing all the way so far, I thought life was in sight, but I didn't expect it to be death.Up to this moment, Liu Zheng no longer dared to take any chances. Surrounded by hundreds of his descendants, he looked back at the ragged soldiers with lifeless faces in the dilapidated city, and cheered up. Yelling to boost morale.

However, although his tone was high-pitched, and his voice spread throughout this small ruined city, there were few responders.It is true that Nozawa has been trapped for several years, and then suddenly left Nozawa to run away for several days. He thought he would escape from this point, but he didn't expect to rush directly into the encirclement of such a strong army. Has been worn out.

Seeing that the soldiers were so depressed, Liu Zheng rushed into the crowd to kick and beat them, but those people would rather hug their heads and wail, or simply fall to the ground, and refused to respond.What's more, he directly threw the rusty and chipped weapon far away from the broken wall, and howled in his mouth: "Live, live..."

Seeing this scene, Liu Zheng became even more ashamed. He staggered up to the high post, threw off the hood on his head, his disheveled gray hair fluttered in the wind, and faced the Huainan army formation that had advanced tens of feet away, he held his knife on his neck above, the tone is full of sadness: "Huainan Liang Gong, a manifestation of benevolence and righteousness! Beg for a mere body, all innocent people!"

After saying that, he turned the blade, and blood shot out like an arrow on his neck in an instant.

"My lord..."

Liu Zheng's men saw him committing suicide, many of them were astonished, even if dozens of people rushed forward to help his corpse, others drew out their sabers and followed him.

Seeing this scene during the confrontation, Shen Mu had a strange look in his eyes, and then he laughed, causing people to come forward and shout: "Although Liu Zheng is a rebellious king, he has been in chaos for a long time, but he can live by begging for people with his life. Live up to the spirit. The lords are sympathetic to this brave man, and specially recruit loyal and righteous followers. If there are hundreds of people accompanying the soldiers, all their bones will be buried with the ceremony of soldiers!"

The similar shouting continued several times. After hearing the words, Liu Zheng's men all looked angry, but seeing the dead bodies of the lord and his comrades, they didn't have the courage to resist for a while, and then some people picked up the knife one after another and yelled before dying. One cry: "Thank you, Junhou, for your consolation!" Then he also killed himself.

Within half a quarter of an hour, nearly [-] people died of suicide.Then the rhythm dropped, after all, not everyone could see death as home.And more trilogy, including his children, knelt down, covered their faces and wailed loudly.

The Huainan army climbed up the high hill for the second time, and Shen Mu finally arrived at the bloody suicide scene on the top of the high hill. Seeing the thirty corpses lying on the ground, he was full of emotion for a while, so many people followed him to death , it can be seen that this Liu Zheng also has his own merits, otherwise he would not have persisted for such a long time in such a dangerous environment.If the Huainan Army hadn't joined the encirclement and suppression campaign, this person might have escaped from Xuzhou.

"Collect these strong bones and bury them all."

After sighing, Shen Mu gave orders, and then turned to look at the soldiers of the rebellion who were not lacking in sadness, with a playful expression.The reason why he asked people to call out hundreds of people before was just to destroy the ambition of these people.

After these rebellious strokes, even if there are rebellious people who want to use Liu Zheng's name to mobilize people to make trouble again, people have to recall that this person is greedy for life and afraid of death, and would rather the lord be dismembered than commit suicide to follow him. Can't afford any waves.At least Liu Zheng's chaotic army will not leave any hidden dangers for Xuzhou after this battle.

(End of this chapter)