Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 386 0381 [Western Army Split]

The camp of the Zhejia army is on the east bank, and the camp of the Zhongjia army is on the west bank.

Hearing that the Zhong family army was raided and suffered heavy losses, it was a bargain and even a little happy, because this would give them an excuse to withdraw their troops.

The two families are different, and Zheshi belongs to the real warlord.

They have been running Fugu since the Five Dynasties. In order to guard against foreign races, the Song Dynasty always let Zhejia stand on the front line.The Zhe family not only consolidated their territory for generations, but also married their daughters to marry other generals. For example, the old lady She in "The General of the Yang Family" should actually be called "the old lady Zhe".

Where there is a territory, there is ambition. In history, after asking for gold, he even wanted to compete for the seat of the puppet Qi emperor.

Zhe Keqiu crossed the river in a small boat and pretended to visit the Zhong family's military camp.Seeing that everyone here is in danger, Zhe Keqiu sighed: "The soldiers are so scared, how can they still fight? Did you escape a lot last night?"

Master Zhong said: "There is only one way to escape. Most of them fled to the grain station further north. I have sent people to recall the defeated soldiers."

Zhe Keqiu said nothing more, he found it hard to understand the Zhong family's foolish loyalty.

This has been the case for generations of the Zhong family. The children of the Zhong family died one after another. Dozens of people have been bloody on the battlefield for more than a hundred years.

Discuss the way to deal with it, and you can ask to go back to the east bank by boat.

Not long after, a rebel army came by boat and shot books at the barracks on both sides of the strait.

After Zhe Keqiu read it, he said to his younger brother Zhe Kecun, "It's not a letter to persuade you to surrender. You can read it yourself."

Zhe Kecun took it over and read it: "This is a disaster. If the court finds out, my Zhe family will be feared."

"As long as the prefecture is still in the hands of the Zhe family, the Zhe family will have military power, so what if the court is afraid?" Zhe Keqiu sneered.

Zhe Kecun said: "This is clearly a divorce plan!"

Zhe Keqiu shook his head: "It's not that simple, the surname Zhu has a deep meaning, and it is already preparing to seize the world."

The content of the letter sent by Zhu Ming is very simple. First, he expressed his respect to the Zhe family and enumerated the great military exploits of the Zhe family's ancestors.Then he said that after the war was over, he planned to negotiate peace with the imperial court, and when the time came, he would ask the emperor for a marriage, and Zhu Ming planned to marry the daughter of the Zhe family.

One is alienation. If the content of the letter spreads, there will definitely be rumors that the Zhe family is colluding with bandits.

The second is to appease, so as to express the goodwill towards the Zhe family, so that the Zhe family army will give up resistance and flee for their lives early.

The third is to win over, hoping that the Zhe family will hedge their bets and send the Zhe family's daughter to be the future concubine of the new dynasty.

The fourth is the layout. After marrying the daughter of the general of the Western Army, we will be a family from now on, and we will no longer worry about the threat from Shaanxi.Once there is a change in the north, these generals can take refuge in Zhu Ming.

Zhe Keqiu is already tempted, the Zhu thief is very powerful, the separatist rule of Sichuan is a foregone conclusion, maybe he can be the emperor in the future.

If he married his granddaughter, as long as Zhu Thief survived, the imperial court would not dare to do anything to Zhejia.

The bigger the Zhu thief is, the more the court wants to appease the Zhe family!
Zhong Shidao also received a letter from Zhu Ming.

"This Zhu thief is really full of wit and tricks." Although Zhong Shidao was annoyed, he was so angry that he lost his temper. Instead, he began to appreciate Zhu Ming's wit.

Zhong Hao said: "The Zhu thief sent hundreds of letters, and the literate officers also opened and read some. Now some people have spread in the army, saying that our Zhong family is going to marry their daughter to the Zhu thief. What are the two writers?" One family, there is no need to fight desperately."

Master Zhong lamented: "I'm afraid that if it spreads to the court, it will further confirm the rumors that the cultivators colluded with thieves."

The Zhe family has a fixed territory, so of course they are not afraid of being manipulated by the court.

The Zhong family did not have such a deep foundation. Although they have been suppressing the Zhe family from their positions, the court can deal with them at will.

The content of the letter is spread, and coupled with the continuous defeat, it is impossible to lead the army in the future.

On the south bank of the Shahe River, more and more rebels gathered. It was obvious that they wanted to fight against the Zhong family army, but the Zhe family army only defended from the plank road.

Zhong Shidao gave Zhe Keqiu an order to divide the Zhe family's army into half and stick to the camp on the north bank of the Shahe River together.

Zhe Keqiu sent someone to reply: "The east bank must also stick to the Zhejia army. The morale of the Zhejia army is low and the morale of the army is unstable. It is difficult to send troops to the west bank to support the friendly army. The bandit sailors are powerful. If the Zhejia army crosses the river to support them, they may be killed in the river. Bandit soldiers defeated."

It's purely an excuse. If you're afraid of the rebel navy, just cross the river further upstream.

Such a reply made Master Zhong furious: "You can ask this person, he doesn't obey the military order, he is ambitious!"

You can seek to withdraw your troops early, just want to preserve your strength.

The letter that Ju Ming shot out further strengthened his plan, and even gave Zhe Keqiu a fantasy.

At this point, the Western Army in front of us finally split, and the Zhejia Army with more troops no longer went into battle. Only the Zhongjia Army, which was greatly weakened, still wanted to hold on.

Ju Ming stood on the bank of the river, observing the movement of the enemy with binoculars, and saw only sporadic boats coming and going.

He also sent a few warships to patrol upstream every day, but the Zhejia army showed no sign of crossing the river.

"Planting and breaking up two generals, the separation has been successful." Zhu Ming laughed.

Shi Yuangong flattered and said: "The general has a great plan, I never thought of the trick of asking to marry the general's daughter."

Zhang Tong suddenly said: "The more I think about it, the more absurd I feel. We are rebels. After winning the battle, we are neither planning to be emperor nor ministers. We have to negotiate peace with the court and ask to marry a princess and a general. Can the court agree?"

Zhu Ming said: "The stupid king will agree. Even if I help my father ask for a noble concubine, Zhao Ji will obediently send his favorite concubine. The premise is that he leads troops to kill Tongguan!"

It's a pity that Concubine Liu Gui, whom Zhu Guoxiang liked, died of illness two years ago.

A total of six cast iron cannons weighing more than 2000 kilograms were successively transported to the south bank of the Shahe River by boat.

The artillery positions are set up, and the artillery is lined up.

"Boom boom boom!"

The six cannons did not fire in salvo, but fired in rotation, trying to ensure continuous shelling, and the target was the Western Army camp in the distance.

Thirty tiger squatting guns are also firing in rotation, targeting the nearby Western Army fortifications.

In front of the artillery position, an earthen wall was built, only the gap of the gun barrel was exposed, in case the western army used a bed crossbow to fight back.

The damage caused is actually not that big, because they are all blind shots.

But the pressure on the Western Army was too great, and the shells from the six artillery pieces fell directly into the Western Army's camp, hitting two or three people in the lottery from time to time.

Due to the terrain, Zhong Shidao could not retreat because of the lack of places to set up camp.At this time, if you want to retreat, you have to retreat more than ten miles, giving way to the mouth of the Shahe River for nothing.

Moreover, if you are chased by the rebel army when retreating, it is easy for the whole army to collapse!

After shelling intermittently for half a day, take a break when the barrel is hot.

The Zhong family's army couldn't live in their own camp, and they sat or lay down on the hillside one after another, and they didn't even dare to stand casually in the camp.

Zhong Shidao ordered the civilians to dig trenches, and wanted the soldiers to hide in the trenches.

However, there are many rocks on the shore, and it is extremely difficult to dig trenches, which is much more difficult than Zhu Ming building the earthen walls of the artillery positions.

"Withdrawing troops tonight, I don't care about the king's order." Zhong Shidao finally went all out, it didn't matter if he was dismissed from office, and it didn't matter if the Zhong family's children were suppressed, the remaining Western Army had to be brought back.

It can be said that if they work together to kill the thieves, they may still persist in the way of being a teacher.

But the Zhejia army is clearly watching the show, so how can there be any chance of winning?
After shelling for a whole day, Ju Ming felt that the morale of the enemy troops had almost dropped, and he also ordered: "The whole army rests and launches an attack at night."

After nightfall, the Zhong family army began to retreat in an orderly manner, without even saying hello to Zhe Keqiu in advance.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Zhong family army only withdrew more than 1000 people, and suddenly the artillery sounded again.

The Zhong family army gathered together and waited to evacuate, but a shell fell into the crowd suddenly. In the darkness, it was unknown how many people were killed or injured by the shell bounce.

The cries kept coming, and the soldiers dispersed in panic.

At this time, they have not escaped because there is no place to escape, and the passage ahead is very narrow, all blocked by the retreating troops.

The tiger squatting guns were also fired towards the north bank of the Shahe River, which was to cover the rebels crossing the river.

When the rebel army was ready to cross the river on the south bank of the upper reaches of the Shahe River, they immediately beat drums to deliver the news.

All the tiger squatting guns stopped firing, the rebels floated down from the upper reaches of the Shahe River in small boats, and another group of rebels floated up from Baoshui in large boats, aiming at the riverside positions of the Zhongjia Army that had just been shelled.

And the six cannons were still firing towards the Zhongjia military camp in the distance.

"Dong dong dong dong!"

The dull sound of the drum was like a reminder. The Zhong family army who was in charge of defending the river bank had just been attacked by a few rounds of tiger squatting artillery.

The Zhong family's army was retreating in an orderly manner and was bombarded causing some confusion, but Zhong Shi's way could barely stop.

But the rebel army crossed the river and chased the rout soldiers, and the main force of the Zhong family army finally collapsed.

Some people squeezed desperately into the narrow passage, and some people lost their minds and climbed the cliff.There are also some people who remember that the rebels did not kill the prisoners, but threw away their weapons and lay in the corner waiting to surrender.

Even the soldiers who were responsible for burning the food and grass threw away their torches, turned around and fled.The clever ones stood by the food and grass, and wanted to dedicate the food and grass to the rebel army to claim credit.

The father and son of the Zhong family were also blocked, and there was no way to escape.

Many kinds of family troops pushed each other on the narrow passage, and there was a constant sound of falling into the water, and the soldiers fell into the water like dumplings.

"You go to the front to restrain discipline, let the soldiers line up to retreat, and I will lead the soldiers to break the rear!" Zhong Shidao said to his son and nephews.

At this time, they didn't care about the nonsense, and the Zhong family's nephews and nephews obeyed the order and brought their own soldiers to carry it out.

The camp of the Zhong family army was in disarray, the generals could barely restrain their own soldiers, and could not command ordinary soldiers at all.

The shelling finally stopped completely, but soon the rebels came again.

After Zhong Shidao and his personal soldiers were broken, he was crushed in a face-to-face, and he was defeated before even fighting. The personal soldiers quickly ran away with Zhong Shidao.

One after another, the Zongjia army knelt down and surrendered. Ju Ming's effect of not killing the prisoners showed that these Zongjia troops surrendered without any worries.I just want to surrender as soon as possible, and be sent back to my hometown in Shaanxi by General Zhu.

"Run, don't burn the food and grass, take as much as you can, and leave the rest as a personal favor to the rebels!"

Zhe Keqiu heard the movement on the other side, knew that the Zhong family's army must be finished, and immediately ordered the whole army to flee, and even deliberately left food and grass for the rebels.

(End of this chapter)