Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

Hei Te Changzhi took all the horses he could muster at night and ran towards the place where the fire was rising. When he arrived, corpses had piled up in the square outside the city gate. Most of them were Shaanzhou militiamen. He saw There was no appearance of fighting, only a chaos of swords and shouts. The shouts and screams lingered in the air-conditioning of autumn. Compared with the night raiders, these militiamen who had not taken up arms for a long time were really too weak. .

Hei Te Changzhi turned around and made a rough estimate. There were probably more than ten riders coming with him. It was of course impossible to take back the city gate with this small force. After thinking about it, he ordered his men to divide into two groups, and ordered the group at the back to gallop back and forth where the fire could not reach, to increase the momentum. He led the group to rush forward, shot two people, and took off their heads. , picked it with the tip of his spear, and shouted loudly: "The reinforcements have arrived, the reinforcements have arrived!"

The attackers could not see clearly the size of Hei Te Changzhi's troops at night. They only saw a group of cavalry rushing towards them at night, and heard the rumble of horse hooves in the darkness. They thought that a large group of reinforcements had arrived and hurriedly retreated towards the city wall. After a while, the shouts of killing subsided.

"Take two people and dispatch all these militiamen!" Heiji Changzhi looked at the burning situation of the city gate and said to his subordinates: "The city gate is burned like this. It can no longer be defended. Tianyi Liang Ge Dewei will enter the city. It's useless for these people to fight in the streets, they just kill more people in vain!"

"As ordered!"

After Black Teeth Changzhi finished handling the matters at the city gate, he rode towards the Shaanzhou Envoy Office. Yiji Lianbode and Cui Hongdu were already dressed, and Hei Teeth Changzhi informed them of the situation at the city gate. .

"Since we can't defend Shaanzhou, let's leave the city overnight!" Cui Hongdu said: "Hei Te Changzhi, you go burn the granary, Yiji Lianbode and I will burn the workshop, and then we leave the city together."

"As you command!"

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Chang'an, Political Affairs Hall, late at night.

"It's really unlucky that I will encounter extra things at night when I'm on duty!" Liu Peiji yawned, and the straw mat stung his bare soles. "Put the military information on a few cases, and I'll be down right away!"

Judging from the sky outside the window, it was already past midnight. Theoretically, there would be a night watch at the political hall every night, and they would have to be awake. But in fact, almost all night watchers sleep until dawn in a small attic next to the Political Hall. This is an open secret that everyone knows. After all, the youngest person who can enter the Political Hall is forty years younger, and he stays up all night long. Although national affairs are important, it seems that his own body and bones cannot be said to be unimportant, right?

Liu Peiji wet his face with warm water from the basin next to the bed, and squatted in the toilet unhurriedly. The night air made his exposed skin feel cold. Anyway, no one was supervising him at this time. Liu Peiji emptied his intestines, put on his official robe, and walked outside.

The handwriting on the letter was a bit blurry. Liu Peiji rubbed his eyes and put the letter close to the oil lamp, trying to read every word on it. When he read all the contents, he couldn't help but was shocked: "Ge Dewei took Shaanzhou, damn it, Wouldn't the canal road be opened? Then, once General Wang comes back, wouldn't he have to fight with Pei Xingjian, and the essence of the Tang Dynasty would probably be burned down! No, this is absolutely impossible!"

Liu Peiji paced back and forth anxiously in the political hall. He couldn't think of anything for a while. In the end, he had to sigh: "This is really beyond my power!"

The next morning, Pei Judao was overjoyed when he learned that Godwick had restored Shaanzhou and opened up water transportation. With a stroke of his pen, he promoted Godwick to General Zuowuwei, ordering him to continue to pursue the fleeing rebels and ensure the smooth flow of water routes. , ensuring Chang'an's food supply. But the next news is not so good. According to Ge Dewei: The rebels set fire to the Shaanzhou granary before leaving, and the water ships and docks were also seriously damaged. It will be difficult to restore water transportation in the short term, let alone transport food to Chang'an. .

"Then take the land route. No matter what I do, I must ensure that enough food is transported to Chang'an!" Pei Judao said loudly: "Pass my order, all the carriages, mules and horses in Chang'an City are requisitioned to transport food! I will start tomorrow Starting in the morning, we ride on a donkey cart to go up to the palace!"

Pei Judao's order immediately aroused a lot of complaints. There were so many high-ranking officials and nobles in Chang'an City, and they all had carriages and horses at home. In fact, they were not short of food. No matter how high the price of food was, they would not be hungry, but they had to eat all their food all at once. The chariots and horses were requisitioned to transport grain. Not to mention that Pei Judao, as a servant, went to court in a donkey cart. What would other officials do? As a result, Pei Judao got a nickname, "The Donkey Cart Waiter"!

While Pei Judao was struggling in Chang'an City, Wang Wenzuo's march south from Fan Yang went smoothly, and people kept coming to join him along the way. When he arrived at Qinghe, the total force had increased to nearly 60,000. Lu Zhaolin immediately followed the ancient practice and multiplied the strength by two to report it. It was said that 120,000 soldiers could not defeat the army. However, Wang Wenzuo felt that based on the speed of the army's increase, it should be almost worthy of the name by the time it arrived in Beizhou.

"General, Qinghe is one of the warehouses in the world!" Lu Renji said: "There are not only grain and cloth in it, but also a lot of arrows, leather, and iron ingots. There is also an official horse farm nearby. It is really a great general. It’s the foundation for success!”

"Mr. Lu knows a lot!" Wang Wenzuo looked at the old man with a white beard in surprise. This guy had to follow the army southward from Fan Yang. Along the way, he gave instructions on geography, cities and treasury. He was quite knowledgeable, but The question is, is this something he should know? It seems that this old guy is no longer interested in causing trouble.

"Where, where!" Lu Renji said with a smile: "I have been paying attention to these things for more than forty years. I thought I would never need them in this life, but I never thought that I would be lucky enough to meet General Wang. I am truly lucky!"

"You are lucky, but others are probably unlucky!" Wang Wenzuo slandered, but he still put on a smile on his face and said: "Mr. Lu is indeed an unparalleled talent!"

"The general is joking!" Lu Renji said with a smile: "What kind of unparalleled talent? It's not like the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty doesn't use people from Hebei, and I don't want to waste half my life still wearing a blue shirt, so I just pay attention to these things, hoping when I can Turn this world upside down. Therefore, General, you can rest assured that our Hebei nobles will support you in fighting this time even if our family is ruined!"

"Mr. Lu, I would like to thank you in advance for your kindness!" Wang Wenzuo smiled bitterly: "But to be honest, these new recruits can be used to scare people, but they can be taken out to the field to deliver food! How about it? It also takes three or four months of practice before it can be put to use!"

"That's natural! I can certainly trust the general's knowledge in the art of war!" Lu Renji smiled and said, "But what are your plans after taking Qinghe?"

"It's best to divide the troops!" Wang Wenzuo said: "A group of seven to eight thousand people looks scary, but in fact it is very inconvenient to command, mobilize, drill, and supply. What's more, there are very few combatable troops inside. I plan to divide the troops." There are two routes, one going to Heyang and going straight to Luoyang, and the other crossing the Yellow River from Hulao Pass."

"General, do you want to attack Shenjing from both sides?" "Yes!" Wang Wenzuo nodded. The Heyang he mentioned was located in the west of Mengzhou, Henan Province today, facing Luoyang across the Yellow River. Hulao Pass is located in Xingyang City, Henan Province today. It is the gateway and pass to the east of Luoyang. Different from Luoyang in later generations, the city of Luoyang at that time was built by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. The city was solid and there were many defensive strongholds on the periphery. A large defense system like this could not be captured by simply attacking from one direction. Emperor Taizong spent a lot of energy attacking Wang Shichong. In the end, he defeated Dou Jiande and made Wang Shichong despair before he captured this strong city.

Therefore, Wang Wenzuo's plan is to attack from two directions at the same time, looking for fighter opportunities, and there is also a trick in it. After Wang Wenzuo captures Heyang, he can detach a partial army, cross the Taihang Mountains, enter Hedong, intimidate Puban, and directly Threatening Guanzhong, the enemy forces had to divide their troops and deploy their defenses, ignoring their backs.

Of course, the plan is a plan, and the reality is reality. Regardless of the rabble under his command now, Wang Wenzuo’s men don’t even have a general who can take charge of their own affairs and command partial divisions. He can only hope that Hei Te Changzhi and the others can escape, otherwise We can only transfer people from Liaodong.

"Hey!" Wang Wenzuo looked at the newly-declared leaders of the Hebei Rebel Army not far behind him, and then at the officers and guards who had followed him for many years on both sides. He couldn't help but shook his head secretly. This was not something he could catch up in a day or two. Yes, let’s start with marching and camping.

No matter how the history books praise Hebei's folk customs as simple and courageous as they are quiet and knight-errant. But Wang Wenzuo knew very well that in a real war, personal courage and strength, as well as skill in mastering weapons, would play a negligible role compared with the organization and discipline acquired through training. Unfortunately, the Tang Dynasty did not have many Zhechong mansions in Hebei. As a result, there were many strong men from Hebei who took refuge with Wang Wenzuo, but very few of them had any military training experience. If you just throw them into the battlefield, you will only harm others and yourself - there are too many examples in history of being defeated by one's own troops and disrupting the formation. So Wang Wenzuo’s idea is very simple: Since you can’t fight in the field now, then don’t fight. The tasks of field warfare will be handed over to the veterans he brought. These newbies will learn to dig trenches and repair them. Barrier, then stand behind the barrier and shoot arrows, throw stones, and throw short spears outside. Once you have had enough of the smell of gunpowder smoke, seen enough dead people, and can understand the flags, it will not be too late to go to the battlefield again.

Of course, the consequence of this was that the new recruits were tortured unspeakably, after marching thirty or forty miles every day. The veterans can cook, eat and rest. They also had to cut grass to feed the horses, dig trenches, build fences, and endless chores. More than once, Wang Wenzuo saw a soldier dozing off while digging in the ground with a hoe. He felt that he was going a little too far, but he had no choice. The first step from a commoner to a soldier was to learn to endure fatigue and hunger.

After taking Qinghe without bloodshed, Wang Wenzuo's men could be said to have exchanged a shotgun for a cannon. Lu Renji's intelligence was very accurate. Indeed, regardless of the food in the Qinghe warehouse, there were also a large number of weapons and raw materials for making weapons. There were more than a thousand war horses in the nearby horse farm. This further confirms one of Wang Wenzuo's conjectures - this old guy has a very efficient spy network. No wonder he raised a rebel nephew like Lu Twelve. It seems that someone like Lu Zhaolin is an honest student. Those who wrote poems and went to Chang'an to find a way to become an official were really a minority in the Lu family.

"Twelve Lang, Twelve Lang!" Lu Zhaolin shouted.

"What's the matter?" Lu Twelve turned around and said, "If you have anything to do, just tell me. I'm very busy now!"

"What are you busy with?" Lu Zhaolin asked, "I haven't seen you for a while?"

"What are you busy with? Of course I am leading the troops!" Lu Twelve replied with a smile: "I have more than 3,000 people under my command now!"

"Infantry and cavalry?" Lu Zhaolin asked.

"Of course they are infantry!" Lu Twelve said with a smile: "I can't command three thousand cavalry!"

"The infantry is very hard work!" Lu Zhaolin said with a wry smile: "The general is now using the newly arrived people from Hebei as auxiliary troops, digging trenches, building walls, and cutting horse grass, without stopping every day!"

"Then what else can they do? If they are like them, if they can go to the battlefield, wouldn't they be willing to die?" Lu Twelve said with a smile: "It's good for the general to do this. If you can't stand it, get out, and if you can stand it, stay." Come down, and then we’ll talk about the rest!”

"You actually think that? I thought you would dislike it!" Lu Zhaolin said with a smile.

"How could it be!" Lu Twelve said with a smile: "Don't blame me, the soldiers in the army also figured it out. Why did everyone leave their families, wives and children behind? Isn't it just to do what King Xia Wei Jing did at the beginning? Thing? Compared to this, what does it mean to suffer a little? "

"What's the matter with King Xia?" Lu Zhaolin sighed after hearing this: "Well, I hope it can happen this time!"

"It will definitely work! When it comes to benevolence, the general may not be as good as the King of Xia, but when it comes to using troops, the general is much better than the King of Xia!"

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Wang Wenzuo's message finally reached Chang'an, followed almost immediately by news of his continuous victories in Hebei. It's like a ladle of cold water being poured into a boiling pan of oil. Everyone in the city of Chang'an, from the princes and ministers to the traders and footmen, were all talking about this matter. Compared with it, even the recent conscription of chariots and horses became less important.

"So Wang Wenzuo is rebelling!"

"Did you read the memorandum? People said that they raised the army to save the emperor, but it was Pei Shizhong and King Pei who turned against him!"

"Nonsense, who rebels and doesn't find a reason for himself? He said he would save the emperor in order to save the emperor? In this world, it's all about his words!"

"That's what you said, but it is true that the emperor was seriously ill at the time, and it was a bit strange for King Pei to supervise the country." (End of Chapter)