The new era of chaos begins in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 281 Nan'an Juyi

When the soldiers and horses from Zheng's three provinces arrived in Nankang County, the camp was not set up and the soldiers and horses did not rest, but he ordered his troops to attack the county seat.

Unfortunately, Wang Huan had already gotten a glimpse of the strength of his army. He only led troops from three capitals and more than 300 people sneaked out of the city. Taking advantage of the Song army's unstable foothold, he suddenly launched a surprise attack from the flank of the army.

Although Wang Huan was confident of victory, all his subordinates thought they would suffer a brutal fight.

I never thought about it, but Wang Huan's troops were everywhere, and the exhausted Song troops all fell to the ground and asked for surrender, and few even escaped.

However, as soon as the drums were played, more than 2,000 Song troops were wiped out. Only Zheng Sansheng and more than a dozen of his own troops fled in panic.

After the war, Wang Huan took inventory of the battle damage and found that none of his men were casualties. Only a dozen people were killed in the Song army. However, nearly a hundred of the Song army died suddenly due to exhaustion.

After Wang Huan and all his soldiers learned about what happened to the two former friendly troops, they all regretted and feared them. If it hadn't been for Wang Huan's "foresight", he and others would have suffered the same fate.

As a result, all the soldiers supported Wang Huan even more, and the morale of the army was greatly boosted, which Wang Huan did not expect.

After this battle, Wang Huan collected more than 2,000 soldiers, all of whom were well-trained elites. However, he and others were severely exhausted and could not be used for a while. They had to train carefully for two or three months. Only then can it be possible to restore the old view of elite soldiers in the past.

Of course, it is not a simple matter to restore the old outlook of these two thousand former elite soldiers. It requires a large amount of food and grass supplies, which is obviously not enough for Nankang County alone.

Therefore, Wang Huan only allowed the Jiangjun to train for a few days. After eating a few good meals, he dispersed him and everyone else and formed three military camps with soldiers and horses from his six capitals as the backbone. The battalion has about 900 people, and the total number is more than 2,700 mixed teams.

However, Wang Huan still retained the elite soldiers and horses from the three capitals as his personal guards, and they were also his trump card to suppress dissatisfaction.

Fortunately, there was no dissatisfaction among the surrendered soldiers, especially when they learned about Wang Huan's "far-sightedness" from their new superior officer, the former general of Wang Huan's headquarters, but they all felt inexplicable regret.

In particular, Guan Ke, the former Hebei Road military commander, even beat his chest and shouted: "Since the Wangdu Supervisor has such a plan, why didn't you tell us earlier? I only care about the happiness of my own soldiers and horses, isn't it true?" Isn’t it morally right?!”

Guan Ke was pitiful. He was beaten with a hundred army sticks by Zheng Sansheng for no reason, and his buttocks were only turned into rotten flesh. However, Zheng Sansheng rushed in troops again, and Guan Ke's wounds had no time to cultivate, so that they fester. Into sores.

If he had not surrendered in time at the gate of Nankang City, he would have been delayed for a few more days and his life would not have been saved.

Now even if he gets some treatment, the sore is healed, and Guan Ke can only be a useless cripple, and can no longer be a general.

Guan Ke hated Zheng Sansheng to the core, and he was full of extreme thoughts towards many Song Army officers.

After hearing Wang Huan's "calculation", he felt that it was in line with his own wishes, so he complained that Wang Huan had not told him anything about it.

After Wang Huan heard this, he only smiled coldly and ignored Guan Ke's nonsense.

Straight bitch! At the beginning, you and others were all thinking about making great contributions. If I could tell, I would have been caught and kidnapped by you and others to ask for merit.

This is what Wang Huan and his confidants such as Xue Ju and others said.

The excuses Wang Huan shared with his subordinates that day have long since spread to the entire army as time goes by. Now the old people are leading new people, and the surrendered soldiers also feel the same way and quite support Wang Huan's "strategy."

So almost everyone in the army reached a consensus.

They rebelled against the Song Dynasty because the officials of the Song Dynasty were unclear about their appointments and they mistakenly appointed mediocre people to lead the army. They did not want to be filled with trenches in foreign lands.

When a famous minister and general comes forward in the future, he will still have to follow Wang Huan, the queen of the famous family, to be recruited and returned to the Song Dynasty camp.

This invisibly created Wang Huan's unparalleled personal prestige in the military.

In order to support the rebels of the Song Dynasty, Wang Huan led a military camp and personal guards to go south, upstream along the Zhang River, and first captured the town of Nanyi, and then attacked the town of Khitou, collecting rice, grain and livestock along the way. They were transported by ship to Nankang County, where they gained a lot.

In the spring of the second year of Chongning, Wang Huan led a thoroughly reorganized elite force and approached the Nan'an Army in Dayu County.

Dayu County is the seat of the Nan'an Army, and the Nan'an Army's Military Envoy's Office is located here. Unfortunately, Guo Cong, the Nan'an Army's Military Envoy, was killed by the hero Xu Jing last year for robbing civilian girls in Nankang County. .

Later, under the orders of Nan'an Army Marching Sima, the county lieutenant of Dayu County summoned rural soldiers to suppress the bandits, but they were defeated by the bandits.

The county captain died in battle, and the brave soldiers were captured by the thieves. The county defenders were scarce. If the thieves had not had the idea of ​​attacking Dayu County a few years ago, they would have taken over it long ago.

Wang Huan led his troops to advance. Sima Zhao Xi was frightened by the marching Nan'an army, but he escaped on the pretext of going to Shangyou County to mobilize troops.

Qin Jing, the magistrate of Dayu County, knew that the city was difficult to defend, but he had no choice but to open the city gate wide and let the rebels march in.

However, although Qin Jing did not choose to resist, he did not surrender directly. Instead, he sat in the county government office, waiting for the rebels to come and take him.

However, Wang Huan ignored Qin Jing and only went to the county government office to meet Qin Jing. After a few words, they made a gentleman's agreement.

If the rebels occupy the city, they can collect military supplies, but they are not allowed to plunder.

Qin Jing made himself the magistrate of the Song Dynasty and could not order the people in the county to fight against the rebels.

After Dayu County was captured, Wang Huan left a few troops to defend, but the main force still returned to Nankang County, because the main force of the Song Army's march south along Hongzhou to suppress the rebellion had already arrived.

Wang Huan and others were the vanguard of this army at the beginning. Now the former vanguard has rebelled with Wang Huan, but the remaining main force is still very strong.

There are at least 7,000 elite soldiers and nearly 10,000 accompanying auxiliary troops. The total strength is said to be 30,000. The leading general is Yao Xiong and Yao Yifu, who has been a veteran for many years.

Yao Xiong was the son of Yao Si, a powerful general from the northwest. He was a brave and resourceful young man. At the age of eighteen, he accompanied his father on expeditions. He was not absent from all the major and minor battles during Zhezong's reign.

After Huizong succeeded to the throne, the court discussed abandoning the defense of Huangzhou one year ago (when the Jingguo was founded), so he ordered Yao Xiong, the defense envoy of Huangzhou, to discuss the interests. Yao Xiong was persuaded by various civil servants and agreed to abandon Huangzhou. So Huizong gave Huangzhou to Longkong, the leader of the Qingtang fan (named Zhao Huaide), and appointed Yao Xiong to govern Xizhou, and then to serve as the observer of Huazhou.

This time the army went south to suppress the rebellion, and Yao Xiong was the commander-in-chief. He had fought for many years and had rich experience. However, the supervisor who accompanied the army was a civil servant who had no military skills but was equally headstrong.

Zhang Kangguo, who was a member of Zhongshushe and also served as the successor of Zhongshu, was a good friend of Cai Jing, and he was also very friendly with He Zhizhong. He followed Yao Xiong to supervise the army, and often rebelled against the army, but Yao Xiong Nuonuo did not dare to rebel. Therefore, although the army was large, the soldiers were stagnant, and the war Li Shaoqiu.

Yao Xiong also knew that his soldiers were temporarily unable to fight, so although he knew that Wang Huan's troops were recuperating in Nankang and would fight more, he did not dare to send troops to threaten him. He only stopped his troops in Gan County, Qianzhou, in order to rest and reorganize his troops.

It is a pity that after Zheng Sansheng was defeated at Nankang City, a few of them fled back to the Chinese army to see Zhang Kangguo.

Zheng Sansheng's defeat in Nankang did not realize that it was his fault at all, but he said that the army was exhausted, the generals were cowardly, and his own support was not available, so it was difficult to win despite a fierce battle. To put it bluntly, Zheng Sansheng completely passed the blame for the defeat. The soldiers were lazy and unwilling to fight, the generals were too timid to fight, and the reinforcements could not keep up. So even though he tried his best to maintain it, he still suffered a defeat.

Don't tell me, Zhang Kangguo really believed Zheng Sansheng's nonsense, because in his opinion, Yao Xiong's main force of the Chinese army also had these problems. The soldiers were lazy, the generals were timid and fearful of fighting, and there were not enough reinforcements around them. , how can this suppress the rebellion!

Of course, no matter how bold Zhang Kangguo was, he would not dare to kill Yao Xiong like Zheng Sansheng killed and state inspector Liu Qu. However, he could rely on his power to supervise the army and sideline Yao Xiong.

When Wang Huan led his army to attack the city and plunder the land along the Zhangshui River, collecting rice, food, wine and meat to support the army for rest, there was intrigue in the Song army camp in Gan County.

Zhang Kangguo sent a secret letter to the coach He Zhizhong, and then asked for the commander's order to dismiss several of Yao Xiong's generals, then replaced them with Zheng Sansheng and other civil servants, and finally forced Yao Xiong to lead his army to attack Nankang.

What's funny is that if Zhang Kangguo could force Yao Xiong to attack Wang Huan when Zheng San Province was defeated, although it might be a bit reluctant, Wang Huan would not be able to accept it. After all, both sides were exhausted, and even Wang Huan's men were even more miserable. a little.

However, Zhang Kangguo's trick was delayed for two months.

In the past two months, Wang Huan tried his best to let his soldiers and horses take turns to recuperate, and slowly restored their combat strength. By the time Yao Xiong sent out troops, the entire army could not be said to have recovered 100%, but there was already a certain The peak combat strength is 70% to 80%, and the morale and morale of the army are even worse.

Looking at the Song Army again, due to the internal fighting among the generals, no one cared much about treating the soldiers favorably. Instead, more people were making trouble, so that the soldiers and horses became thinner and the morale of the soldiers became more undisciplined.

The newly appointed Zheng Sansheng and others were not aware of the problem. They only believed that the soldiers were cunning and punished them with cruel laws and violent laws. In a few months, they killed dozens of generals, both large and small, which made the soldiers angry and a rebellion was imminent.

Yao Xiong saw this, but it was a pity that he was not a strong person. Faced with Zhang Kangguo's forced order, he had no choice but to obey.

In the late spring of the second year of Chongning, the Song army arrived at Xiangshui Beach in Zhangshui, which was only thirty miles away from Nankang County, and was about to engage in battle with the rebels.

But Yao Xiong no longer dared to let the army advance, because he already felt that the entire army was on the verge of rebellion. The soldiers looked at him and the generals no longer with resentment, but with cold and dead eyes. .

Inexperienced civil servants don't know, but Yao Xiong, who has been fighting on the battlefield for more than twenty years, knows exactly what this look means.

Yao Xiong ignored the objections of Zhang Kangguo, Zheng Sansheng and others and forced the army to camp and rest.

After receiving the military order, the extremely tired and angry soldiers refused to even build the camp. They just sat on the ground in a mess, whispering to each other.

In a temporary tent, Yao Xiong and Zhang Kangguo and others argued endlessly. Yao Xiong said that the army could not advance any further, otherwise there would be chaos.

Zhang Kangguo and others angrily accused Yao Xiong of being cowardly and afraid of war.

At this moment, dozens of small black shed boats suddenly floated upstream from Zhangshui River, and most of them rushed up to Xiangshui Beach as if they were flying.

Then, from the stranded boats, countless sergeants wearing armor similar to those of the Song army rushed out. They shouted wildly and fought fiercely, and rushed straight into the scattered Song army. Their soldiers were unstoppable.

However, most of the soldiers of the Song Army turned a blind eye to the incoming hostility. They dropped their weapons and hid aside. Some even shouted deliberately: "Wang Huan is coming! The Song Army is defeated! The Song Army is defeated! Everyone, run for your lives!"

Yao Xiong, Zhang Kangguo and others heard the shouting, but they no longer cared about the quarrel and rushed out of the camp. When they saw that their defeat was determined, they all fled like birds and animals.

There were only a few local Qianzhou soldiers and horses who were willing to flee with the general. Some generals also subconsciously turned around and ran away, and were then slashed to death by the Song army next to them.

In particular, many civil servants appointed by Zhang Kangguo to replace the camp generals, such as Zheng Sansheng and others, were almost without exception killed by their subordinates in anger.

Zhang Kangguo fled with Qianzhou soldiers and horses to Zhangshui Ferry north of Xiangshui Beach, but was intercepted by Yibiao's rebels who had just disembarked, and was captured.

Yao Xiong did not escape with Zhang Kangguo, but led his soldiers to Shangyou County in the north.

When he ran to the intersection, he was blocked by several people who looked like generals.

Yao Xiong saw that the person blocking the way was dressed as a Song army, but he shouted: "I am Yao Xiong, the observation envoy to Huazhou of the Great Song Dynasty. Who dares to block my way?"

One of the people who didn't want to block the road laughed and said with a big gun: "God really taught me to perform meritorious service! I will give you a big gift with brother Wang Huan! Hahaha! General Yao, do you know how to open your mouth?!"

Yao Xiong really knew that Zhang Yi was the one who was beaten by the vanguard commander Zhang Yi, which triggered Wang Huan's rebellion.

Yao Xiong held on to his majesty, pointed angrily and said: "How dare you be so rampant here as a mere peasant? Open, I think you have never joined Wang Huan's gang, so retreat for now, don't make a mistake! Otherwise, don't blame me for being ruthless with the sword, Kill you on the spot!"

He laughed widely and said: "General Yao killed me, and I also want to use the general as a gift to meet brother Wang Huan! Don't talk nonsense, and fight me to the death!"

After saying that, Zhang Zhang directly rode towards Yao Xiong.

Seeing this, Yao Xiong's personal guards stepped forward to attack him, but they didn't expect that his marksmanship was so good that he killed five or six people in a matter of seconds. The remaining personal guards were extremely frightened and did not dare to get close to him.

Yao Xiong had no choice but to challenge Zhang Kai himself.

Yao Xiong's martial arts skills are also very strong, and he is almost at the level of a great warrior monk. However, he is already quite old (more than fifty years old), while Kai Kai is still in his prime (twenty-five or six years old), and his martial arts skills are almost at the peak level. , Yao Xiong, who was killed in just thirty rounds, was too timid to hold back.

The two fought for more than ten rounds, and Yao Xiong was finally knocked off his horse by Zhang Zhang and captured alive.

In the late spring of the second year of Chongning, the army on the right flank of the Song Dynasty was defeated in Zhangshuixiangshuitan. The entire army was wiped out. The general Yao Xiong and the supervisor Zhang Kangguo were all captured by the rebels, which shocked the world.

Wang Huan defeated the Song army and surrendered nearly 10,000 troops. Later, he captured Shangyou County. His troops increased to 20,000, falsely claiming to be 50,000. He completely occupied Nan'an and became famous. He was known as the romantic king.

Heroes from Dayuling such as Yang Wen and Xu Jing came to invest one after another. Guangnan tycoon Jing Zhong and Jing Nangang also led hundreds of bankers to join him.

In June, the Zuolu army of the Song Dynasty entered Wuyi Mountain and defeated Mei Zhan's troops. Mei Dalang also led the remaining troops to defect to Nan'an.

In July, Han Bao from Jiuyi Mountain also came to join forces.

Wang Huan built an altar in Zhangshui and made an alliance with all the heroes to work together and never go against each other.

The members of the alliance include Wang Huan, Zhang Kai, Xu Jing, Mei Zhan, Yang Wen, Han Bao, Xiang Yuanzhen, Wang Wende, Li Congji, Jing Zhong, Xue Ju, Li Gui, Chen Qian and other more than 30 heroes.

(End of this chapter)