Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 407 0402 [Tong's Dialectics]

Zhang Guangdao was defeated.

To be precise, it was the navy army under his command that suffered the defeat.

Tong Guan and Xin Xingzong were terribly frightened, they clearly came to suppress the bandits, but they stuck at the mouth of Wuling River and could not come out.

The Han River turned into several sharp bays, where the water potential slowed down, and the sediment was deposited over the years.The Wulingshui, the largest tributary of the Han River, also rushed here with the sediment brought by it.Under the influence of many parties, a Jiangxinzhou was gradually formed.

Jiangxinzhou is four miles long and 400 meters wide. It cuts the Han River. The narrowest part of the north flow is 200 meters, and the narrowest point of the south flow is 400 meters.

The god arm bows and bed crossbows of the officers and soldiers were all arranged in Jiangxinzhou, and some leveling guns were temporarily made.

Zhang Guangdao sent out a warship to attack tentatively, but was immediately attacked by Jiang Xinzhou.At the same time, officers and soldiers shot arrows wildly on the south bank, and officers, soldiers and sailors also rushed out of Wuling water.

Under attack from three sides, fortunately the officers, soldiers and sailors pulled across, otherwise the rebel navy would have been completely annihilated.

Even so, the rebel army lost nine large and small warships, more than 300 sailors were killed or missing, and nearly 1000 were injured.

Before, it was Xin Xingzong who was disgusted by the terrain, but now it was Zhang Guangdao.

The two sides were in a stalemate, and neither dared to attack again, because whoever attacked would be defeated.No matter how strong the army is, it is useless. This is purely a naval battlefield, and terrain factors have a great impact on the war.

Several small boats came from the south, and everyone on board was panicked and anxious.

Tong Guan was drinking on Jiangxin Island, which is the safest place, but saw Xin Xingzong bring him here by boat.

"Grand Master, the bamboo mountain is gone." Xin Xingzong said in a low voice.

Holding the wine glass, Tong Guan's expression was completely frozen. After a while, he asked in surprise: "Your brother lost?"

Xin Xingzong said: "My brother was defeated. The gang of bandits who captured Fangzhou sent spies to set fire to the city and occupied Zhushan city at night. My brother is now blocked in the mountains from front to back. I'm afraid it's too bad."

Tong Guan had received news of the fall of Fangzhou before, but whether there was a local rebellion or bandits came from the south, the number could not be too large. He believed that the cavalry of the Shengjie Army sent to Zhushan would be able to wipe it out.

Can Zhushan City be captured by bandits?

Xin Yongzong is too fucking incompetent!

Tong Guan thought about it and thought that it is not suitable to stay here for a long time.

It is true that he has a good location now, if the bandits come from the south, he will be the one who is flanked.

That night, Tong Guan organized the peasants to carry the grain, and all of them moved to the lower reaches of Jiangxinzhou to board the ship, so as to prevent them from being detected by bandits.

It took two or three days to transport the luggage in batches to Yunxiang, [-] miles away, and then return to transport the soldiers at the mouth of Wuling River.

The narrowest part of the Han River there is only 300 meters, and the countless terrains of the islands are more complicated!

After retreating to Yunxiang, Tong Guan still felt unsafe, because there were more gentle terrain here, and the bandits could land in advance and kill them by land.

So all the ships were collected to transport troops and food, and retreated all the way to Danjiangkou.

Now that he had retreated to Danjiangkou, Tong Guan thought about it carefully, and it would be safer to stick to Xiangyang and quickly took the whole army to Xiangyang.

At least after arriving in Xiangyang, if there is an accident, there is not only one escape route.

Although Zhang Guangdao did not dare to attack, he sent small boats to observe the enemy's situation from a distance every day.

Tong Guan transferred the rations and soldiers from the shore and boarded the ship further downstream at night, Zhang Guangdao couldn't find it.

It wasn't until the third day after Tong Guan's entire army withdrew that the soldiers in charge of the investigation finally felt something was wrong.Because the camps of the officers and soldiers were too quiet, and there were no more officers and soldiers' warships patrolling upstream.

The scout bravely approached with a boat, but there was still no enemy ship to drive him away.

Finally boarded Jiangxinzhou by boat and found that the camp here was empty, only many flags were still flying in the wind.Then we took a boat to the south bank again, but the camp was still empty, and no enemy ships were found in the Wuling River.

"Why did you run away?" Zhang Guangdao couldn't figure it out.

It is obvious that the officers and soldiers occupy the favorable terrain, guarding there made him lose his temper, why did the whole army slip away?
Xu Ning guessed: "Could it be Guan Sheng's big victory, and Tong Guan is afraid of being attacked by both sides?"

"Very likely," Zhang Guangdao nodded and ordered, "Chase!"

When Zhang Guangdao chased all the way to Yunxiang County, he found that not only was there no Tongguan army here, but even the county magistrate of Yunxiang had fled.

It takes no effort to pick up a county seat for nothing.

Then they chased to Danjiangkou. In the Song Dynasty, there was no city here, only a commercial town.

Further downstream is the military city of the Photochemical Army.

The Zhijun of the Guanghua Army also ran away with the military screen officer.

Going forward, Gucheng County is still empty.

Zhang Guangdao finally understood that Tong Guan definitely planned to defend Xiangyang to the death.

Zhang Guangdao led the whole army and stationed in Niushou Town, thirty miles away from Xiangyang.And send a ship back to pick up Guan Sheng, who has won a big victory, and wait for the troops to besiege Xiangyang after joining forces.

What is Guan Sheng doing?
He has joined forces with Li Bao.

Xin Qizong learned that Zhushan had fallen, and his rear was copied. He was so frightened that he attacked during the day and fled immediately after nightfall.

Afraid of being discovered by the rebels, he didn't even dare to burn food and grass, so he only carried some away.

Guan Sheng discovered that the officers and soldiers had slipped away, and immediately led the whole army in pursuit, and finally caught up at dawn.

The two sides fought in Yishui Town, the morale of the officers and soldiers was low, and the whole army collapsed within a moment of fighting.

Xin Qizong's knowledge was not good, and he fled the battlefield quickly with his own soldiers, and bumped into Li Bao and Chen Ziyi who had been killed from Zhushan.

Li Bao and Guan Sheng joined forces at this point, but because they didn't have enough boats, they could only march slowly along the Wuling River.

It wasn't until Zhang Guangdao sent a boat to pick him up that he rushed to Niushou Town by boat.

"Since ancient times, when defending Xiang, one must defend Fan, and when attacking Xiang, one must also attack Fan," Li Bao said, "Fan must be captured first."

Zhang Guangdao said with a smile: "Then attack Dengcheng first."

As soon as this remark came out, all the generals in Jinzhou laughed.

Li Bao was puzzled and asked, "Why are you laughing?"

Guan Sheng explained: "The Wei family, the largest family in Dengcheng, has a son named Wei Yingshi, who is a direct disciple of the general."

Li Bao nodded and said, "I know this, and we went to Lizhou together."

Zhang Guangdao said: "All the secret work sent from Jinzhou has to go to Wei's house to get enough money. The news brought back from the south is also sent to Wei's house first. Even some of the military rations purchased by Jinzhou are also purchased by Wei. The family helped to get in touch. The old grandpa Wei once refused the imperial court’s conquest, and was completely disappointed with the Song court, so he let his grandson help the rebel army.”

Wei Tai was not disappointed with Song Huizong, but disappointed with the Song court. Since his brother-in-law Zeng Bu was relegated to death, he thought that the court was hopeless.

Coincidentally, the Zhu family and his son seem to be able to change the dynasty!
In Fancheng in the Northern Song Dynasty, the city walls had long been in disrepair, and it was just a large commercial town under the jurisdiction of Dengcheng.

Take Dengcheng County, and you can easily capture Fancheng Town by land.

Zhang Guangdao led an army to approach Dengcheng, which was defended by local soldiers.

Wei Tai and Wei Yingshi's grandfather and grandson were invited from Weijiazhuang, and the old man Wei Tai personally went to persuade him to surrender.

Although people usually dislike dogs, Wei Tai's prestige is still extremely high.The shield hand protected him and yelled under the city. The town soldiers in the city put down their weapons one after another. The magistrate of Dengcheng refused to surrender and was directly tied up by a group of town soldiers.

Zhang Guangdao sent troops to Fancheng, and before he had gone far, he was in charge of inquiring about Chen Ziyi, and he returned with his cavalry to report: "Tong Guan fled from the city by boat, most likely to Nanyang."

"This eggless eunuch, why doesn't he dare to stay and fight?" Zhang Guangdao cursed angrily.

Zhang Guangdao's elite troops were blocked by the disgusting terrain at the mouth of the Wuling River, and had long been suffocated with evil fire and had nowhere to vent.

In particular, Li Bao has made great achievements in running thousands of miles, Zhang Guangdao is also eager to prove himself, and only wants to fight with Tong Guan's army with real swords and guns.

However, Tong Guan ran away anyway, and Zhang Guangdao seemed to be holding a peerless magic bow and couldn't find the target.

In fact, Tong Guan really wanted to stick to Xiangyang, it would be too sinful to lose it, but another accident happened!
……

two days ago.

Jingmen Zhijun sent news that after the bandit Zhongxiang occupied Jiangling, more and more people fled north.

For a while it was said that the public security was taken by the bell thief, and for a while it was said that the stone head was taken by the bell thief, and it even brought news that Wang Teng's entire army was wiped out.

Jingmen Zhijun didn't have many soldiers in his hands, and was so scared that he couldn't sleep all day long. Hearing that Tong Guan had returned to Xiangyang, he hurriedly asked Tong Guan to send some troops over.

"How could this Wang Zhi lose worse than us?" Tong Guan was furious.

Xin Xingzong said: "The army in Wang Zhi's hands is what we picked out, and it is very possible that the whole army will be wiped out. Most of the bell thieves are the generals of the Zhu thieves. If they occupy a few more states and counties, they will ensnare more thieves." When the soldiers go north, Xiangyang is facing the enemy."

At this time, Zhong Xiang has proclaimed himself emperor, but the news has not reached Xiangyang, Tong Guan also regards Zhong Xiang as Ju Ming's person.

Tong Guan thought about it: "It's really hard to deal with. If the bandits only attack from the upper reaches, Xiangyang City's Gaochishen will definitely be able to defend it. But if the Zhong bandits attack from the south together, we will have nowhere to escape."

Xin Xingzong sighed and said: "It is an unforgivable crime to lose the great city of Xiangyang, and you cannot abandon the city."

Tong Guan gritted his teeth and said fiercely: "As long as the soldiers in his hands are still there, no matter how serious the crime is, it can be suppressed! I only hope that Shaanxi will also end in a big defeat. If we are defeated in several ways, our defeat here is nothing."

"This statement is reasonable," Xin Xingzong murmured, "I'm afraid that cultivating the teacher's way will defeat the bandit soldiers."

Tong Guan said: "He can't win. Those in Sichuan are not ordinary bandits. A bandit general surnamed Zhang killed us all. Hanzhong is in Hanzhong, but the Zhu bandit personally sits in the town, and the road is difficult and dangerous. How can Zhong Shi Dao win? "

Xin Xingzong nodded: "I hope so."

Tong Guan said: "Hurry up and prepare to take only the Shengjie army and the Kaifeng soldiers away, and the rest of the Xiang army and the rural soldiers from their hometowns. There are too many people to fit in the boat, so we have to vacate the cabin to transport food. Withdraw to Nanyang first, if If Nanyang can't hold it, it will retreat to Yingchang."

The two immediately prepared to retreat. Except for the Shengjie army and Kaifeng soldiers, all other troops had to be abandoned by them.

Xiangyang is a strategically important place, and the crime of losing this city is too great.

They only hope that the Shaanxi government and army will be defeated, and it is best for the entire Western Army to be wiped out, so as to overwhelm the fall of the Nanxiang Basin.

As long as I have soldiers in my hands, the emperor must seriously consider the consequences when punishing me.

As long as someone else loses worse than me, then my defeat is nothing!
Tong Guan understands dialectics.

(End of this chapter)