Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 710 Five Phoenixes
Yecheng.

In the backyard of the Hebei appeasement envoy's yamen, the appeasement envoy Hua Guogong Li Jing's family has been living here since he took office, and has not set up another residence.

On this day, the servant who fetched water suddenly discovered that lotus-like flowers grew on the wall of the well, and dragon shadows appeared from time to time on the water surface of the well, and after a while they turned into war horses in armor. There are soldiers with weapons.

After a while, a god-man with a height of several feet rose out of the well, and the shadow of the god-man was four or five feet long.

The servant was so frightened that the bucket fell to the ground, and after all the strange images dissipated, he regained some strength to get up.In a panic, he ran to report to the butler, and the butler hurriedly reported to Li Jing.

The housekeeper said worriedly, "According to legend, this is an unlucky thing that comes to eat human blood."

Li Jing didn't believe this kind of nonsense, and thought it was a lie fabricated by the servant, so he reprimanded the steward and sent someone to whip the servant.

A few days later, an envoy came from Taiyuan.

It is said that he came here with a letter written by the emperor under the order of the prime minister Shangshu Zuo Pu to shoot Xiao Yu.

Li Jing opened the letter, and at the beginning of the letter were the words General Li, which was written by the emperor.In the past, every time he met the emperor, the emperor always called him General Li instead of his name, to show his special honor.

The emperor said to Li Jing in the letter, some people say that you are Luo Cheng's teacher, so you conspired against Luo Cheng together, but I don't doubt your loyalty, some people say that you will be transferred away, just in case.But I still believe in you, and continue to entrust you as the peace envoy of Hebei Province.

The emperor also said that the current situation was turbulent, and he was far away in the south of the Yangtze River and could not return the capital for a while, so he specially granted Li Jingcheng the privilege of making worship and doing things cheaply, and also gave him Shangfang Sword, which can kill all the civil servants and generals under the appeasement envoy, and allowed him to recruit soldiers Horses, there is no limit to the number of soldiers, and the counties of Hebei Province, as well as the soldiers of the army, the soldiers of the counties, and the money and food in all places are all dispatched by him in moderation.

"I'm waiting in Jiangdu for the good news that General Li put down the bandit rebellion!"

Seeing this letter, Li Jing let out a long sigh.

"It would be great if His Majesty could have noticed the situation in the world earlier, and it wouldn't be like this."

"The emperor trusts me so much, I can only risk my life to be loyal to the king."

Li Jing summoned all the generals, showed the emperor's handwritten letter to everyone, and took out the Shangfang sword sent by Xiao Yu, expressing his determination to continue hunting down the thieves according to the order, so as to return the peace of Hebei.

"Even though my officers and soldiers in Hebei successively killed Yang Zhongxu and other dozens of bandits, the rebels still sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain. They couldn't stop killing and banning them. Now there are three powerful rebels on the ground in Hebei. They are Dou Jiande, who occupies the southern part of Hebei, and claims to be King Xia; Lu Mingyue, who occupies the central part of Hebei, and claims to be the Supreme King;

"Let's not worry about other things. We just need to focus on managing our duties, destroying the rebels, and reassuring the people." Li Jing decided to destroy Dou Jiande first, retake Liyang warehouse, and at the same time relieve some pressure on Wang Shichong's army in Luoyang.

Fortunately, Hebei has always been rich, and during the Eastern Expedition, a large amount of grain, grass, money, silk and equipment were also transferred and stored here. Now Li Jing decided to take out all the money, silk, grain, grass, and recruit young and strong soldiers from among the refugees. At the same time, their families were resettled, disaster relief and food were provided, and salaries were drawn from the bottom of the pot, so as to prevent the rebels from continuing to coerce the people.

Li Jing distributed food and recruited soldiers in Yecheng, Fuyang and other places, and there were a lot of responders at once.

In a short period of time, Li Jing recruited tens of thousands of young men.

So the team was organized and trained, and weapons and clothing were distributed.

Early October.

Li Jing's new army was still in training, but Dou Jiande, who occupied the Liyang warehouse in Nanji County, Wei County Yecheng, couldn't sit still. He was very afraid when he saw Li Jing training so much.

Decided to strike first.

Dou Jiande sent his general Liu Heita to lead [-] elite soldiers along the canal to attack Huanshui, the east city of Weijun, and Wang Fubao to attack Wu'an County in the north of Weijun, and himself led troops to attack Yaocheng in the south of Weijun.

Li Jing decided to defeat them one by one. He sent his generals to lead most of them south, pretending to fight with Dou Jiande, but in fact he personally led [-] elite troops to rescue Huanshui.

"You are outnumbered. If you go out into battle today and lose a hundred battles, I will take it by plan. Let 2000 troops fight more flags and bluff in front of the Huan River to block the water and back the city to lure them. I will watch the enemy's situation. You must underestimate the enemy's attack, and when the time comes for him to cross the water, lay down on the side of the city with thousands of riders, wait for him to cross halfway and attack him, and you will definitely break the bandit."

He divided his 3000 troops into two groups, with [-] infantry lined up on the other side of the river, and he hid [-] cavalry behind the city.

As expected, Liu Heita underestimated the enemy and led his troops across the river to attack. When they were halfway across the river, Li Jing led a thousand fine cavalry to kill out, and Liu Heita's army was defeated.

After defeating Liu Heita's army and breaking the siege of Huanshui, Li Jing immediately led his troops southward, catching up with the large army that was deliberately marching slowly.

a few days later.

Li Jing and Dou Jiande fought in the north of Yaocheng.

Dou Jiande's Xia army lined up for more than ten miles, with more than [-] strong soldiers.

But Li Jing only had more than [-] men and horses, forming a single line along the embankment to resist Xia's army.It was a strong wind, and Dou Jiande took advantage of the wind to attack. Most of Li Jing's troops were recruits. At this time, the wind blew up and he couldn't see it for a while. As a result, Dou Jiande's army invaded, Hebei's army was defeated, and countless troops and flags were damaged.

Li Jing had no choice but to retreat, Dou Jiande took the opportunity to chase after him fiercely, but after chasing for more than ten miles, the wind direction changed suddenly, sand and rocks were flying for a while, Xia Jun who was pursuing couldn't open his eyes.

Li Jing was overjoyed when he saw this, so he boosted his morale and rushed to kill Dou Jiande's army first.

Now it was the turn of the officers and soldiers to hunt down and kill more than ten li and kill more than ten thousand Xia soldiers.

Dou Jiande returned home in defeat.

The defeated retreated to Tangyin City, south of Yaocheng, and stationed there, gathered the defeated soldiers, 5 horses, but [-] were lost.In addition to being beheaded by more than a thousand people, nearly ten thousand people were hunted down and beheaded during the defeat, and no less than ten thousand people were captured. Then about ten thousand people saw the defeat and fled immediately.

Since the beginning of the army, Dou Jiande has painstakingly managed it. From the beginning with more than a hundred brothers, now he has no less than one hundred thousand people, occupying several counties in southern Hebei, and has never encountered such a big defeat.

I couldn't help feeling disheartened for a while.

"I didn't expect Li Jing to be so powerful. He lost first and then won. He deserves to be Luo Cheng's teacher. Otherwise, we might as well vote for Luo Cheng!" Dou Jiande also received Luo Cheng's surrender letter earlier, and Luo Cheng promised Dou Jiande to lead his troops to join him. Please make him the Marquis of Hejian and the prefect of Qinghe County.

"Your Majesty, victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs, but one defeat can never be surrendered. We brothers, why bother to join the Sui Army, we have sworn that we will never be Sui officials or Sui generals in this life!" The brothers persuaded .

"Your Majesty, why don't we go back to Yaocheng tonight? Today's defeat is nothing more than a bad wind. In my opinion, most of Li Jing's troops are recruits. If they attack at night, there will be chaos."

Dou Jiande hesitated again and again, and finally decided to risk his life.

"Okay, let's fight one more time. If we lose again, we will retreat to Douzigang. If it doesn't work, we will vote for Luo Cheng!"

That night, Dou Jiande led his troops to attack Yaocheng quietly.

Unexpectedly, Li Jing had been on the defensive for a long time, and deliberately let Dou Jiande approach first, and then ambushed soldiers everywhere, and the killed Dou Jiande's army was defeated and fled.

But at this time, the sky suddenly became thick with fog, the vast white fog, and I couldn't see my fingers.

Dou Jiande and the others were fleeing in defeat, so they gritted their teeth and killed them again.

For a while, the two armies did not recognize each other, and could only fight in disorder. As a result, Dou Jiande's army was fighting a trapped beast, and those who were chased had nowhere to escape. In the vast fog, even his companions could not be seen, and he was flustered.

When the battle was not long, many recruits began to flee in a panic, and ended up trampling each other, but Dou Jiande's army turned defeat into victory.

During the scuffle, Li Jing was stabbed by a rebel spear in the mist. Although he was rescued by his own soldiers and fled back to Yaocheng with protection, he returned to the city and died that morning.

As soon as Li Jing died, Dou Jiande went to Yaocheng again, and most of the officers and troops were scattered, so no one could stop them, and the gates of the city opened and surrendered.

Dou Jiande ordered Li Jing's corpse to be restrained, buried solemnly, and then sent troops to the north.

Dou Jiande attacked Wei County, Wu'an County, and Xiangguo County one after another.

For a time, Dou Jiande's prestige in Hebei was greatly shaken, and his Xia army occupied the eight counties of Jijun, Weijun, Wuyang, Qinghe, Wu'an, Pingyuan, Xiangguo, and Xindu.

Countless counties and counties surrendered to the Xia army. At this time, Dou Jiande showed a kindness different from that of ordinary rebels. He was very lenient to the surrendered Sui army officers and soldiers, as well as local officials.

Not only did he not kill indiscriminately, but he also trusted the civilian and military generals who surrendered to him, and each of them was given important positions.

And Dou Jiande is also very kind to his old brother. Whenever he captures a city, all the money he gets will be distributed to the soldiers under his command. He usually doesn't like extravagance, let alone sex.

Every time he conquers a land, he will not rob it all at once like other bandits, and then loot them away.He will select officials very carefully, and then restore order, appease the people, and resume production.

With these strategies of his, Dou Jiande is still very popular among the people in Hebei.

All of a sudden, countless people came to vote, and there were no other bandits in his territory.

At this time, Liu Heita and other old brothers also advised Dou Jiande to proclaim himself emperor and build a country.

Therefore, in mid-October, Dou Jiande captured Hejian County, took Leshou County as his capital, and built Jincheng Palace in the city.

When he led his subordinates into Jincheng Palace, five big birds landed in Leshou City, followed by thousands of birds, and it took a full day before they left.

Another commoner offered a black Xuangui, so Kong Deshao said that in ancient times, Xia Yu personally received the fate of the talisman, and God bestowed Xuanyu.Now this auspicious omen is the same as Xia Yu, so the name of the country should be Xia.

Dou Jiande then accepted this suggestion, and named the country Xia, with Leshou in Hejian as the capital, the palace named Jincheng, and the reign name Wufeng.

At the same time, he also issued an edict to restore the state and county system, change the county to a state, appoint governors, and grant land to the soldiers under his command, and distribute official land and unowned land to the refugees, so that they can settle down again. .

For a while, Dou Jiande's Great Xia Dynasty was also booming.

(End of this chapter)