Late Tang

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Li Jing sits at the foot of Mount Tai. Although the soldiers and horses are stationed in Qianfeng City, the scouts for the horses have been scattered in various states.Huang Chao broke into Yuncheng, and Li Jing got the news the next day.Li Wei carefully reported the situation of the battle of Yuncheng to Li Jing and the generals, "Now Huang Chao is carrying nearly [-] young and strong people to Jeju, and they have all the money, population and food in Juancheng and Yuncheng, and the momentum has recovered a lot. .We judge that Huang Chao is about to join King Jingwu of Qizhou."

"Since the yellow thieves are going to Qizhou, they must pass through Jeju first. My subordinates think that our army can immediately move north to Jeju and intercept the grass thieves in Pingyin City." *] Since then, he has only held the position of a staff officer. Although it is said that he praises the blood of the army, this staff member belongs to the staff department, and there are marching staff officers, counselors, and counselors. Five or six.This made him feel a strong sense of crisis, and he was always thinking of making suggestions, so as to gain Li Jing's trust and integrate into the town [***].

Li Jing smiled slightly, but did not reply to Gai Yu's proposal. Instead, he asked Li Wei with a smile, "You said that Huang Chao now has [-] young and strong men and women in his arms, and he also brought a large number of people who plundered from Pu and Yun prefectures?" Money, silk, grain and grass?"

Li Wei nodded, the grass thief indeed brought a lot of money, food and people.

Ask someone to put up the maps of the four prefectures of Yun, Ji, Yan, and Qi, and piece them together into a large map. Then Li Jing clicks on Gai Yu's name and asks him to use red and blue to mark the positions and positions of the officers and soldiers and grass bandits. course of action.Although it was only a small task, Gai Yu was very happy, and immediately marked the situation of the enemy and us with excitement, even Wang Jingwu of Qizhou, Song Wei of Zizhou and other ministries were marked, even the numbers were marked Very accurate, it can be seen that he usually has a very detailed control over the information.

Li Jing nodded appreciatively to Gai Yu, and said to Gai Yu: "As expected, Staff Gai is meticulous in his work, very good." Let him hang out for a while, and polish off Gai Yu's temper, so that he can use it with confidence.However, you can't blindly suppress it. A few words of praise from time to time can also play an excellent role.

After complimenting Gai Yu a few words, Li Jing pointed to the map and said solemnly: "The way to use troops is not to face the high hills, not to turn against the hills, not to follow the false north, not to attack the sharp soldiers, not to eat the bait soldiers, and not to return to the teacher.

Containment, besieging the leftovers of the division, do not force the poor, this is the method of using troops.The current grass bandits are fleeing to Qizhou in a hurry, and they can be called returnees and poor bandits.For such grasshoppers, I don't think it is the best plan to go to Pingyin City to intercept them first. "

Huang Chao is not Wang Xianzhi. Wang Xianzhi has almost been gutted since the battle of Songzhou, and has fled for several battles.On the contrary, Huang Chao is very desperate. In the battle of Juye, he was defeated by the officers and soldiers, but he dared to counterattack and sneak attack. From this, we can see the huge difference between the two.If Li Jing really rushed to Pingyin City to intercept Huang Chao, and Huang Chao tried his best to break through, Zhen [***] would also suffer great casualties.

In the Battle of Juye, 2 Huang Chao's defeated army counterattacked the official army. As a result, the weak enemy was strong, and the few attacked the crowd, killing and wounding 5000 official troops.Li Jing now has only [-] troops, and he brought [-] young men with him. He rushed all the way to Pingyin, and he was also a tired army. When he had to fight Huang Chao again, the loss must be not small.

What's more important is that it doesn't make any sense for him to fight Huang Chao so hard.How could Li Jing fight such a battle.

"Should we just let Huang Chao go?"

"No, of course not!" No matter what, Li Jing had to do it even if it was superficial.It must not be said that he let Huang Chao go. At present, the imperial court has even directly appointed Lu Longjun Jiedu envoy. Who knows if the political affairs hall and the ministers of the political affairs hall controlled by Tian Lingzi in the imperial court will suddenly scold them without thinking, or even do something wrong? What a drastic decision to make.In case Li Jing was to be transferred to another town, or entered the court, although Li Jing could refuse to listen to the order, it would not be cost-effective for Li Jing to have a deadlock with the court now.

Pointing at the map, "We're not going to Jeju to intercept, we're going to Yunzhou, first regain Puzhou and Yunzhou, and then enter Jeju to pursue the bandits. As long as we don't chase too closely, the grass bandits won't turn back to fight , At that time, we followed behind them and recovered Jeju, and even approached Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi to leave Qizhou, then we can even recover Qizhou together."

After the battle of Juye, the officers and troops of the six towns in the west lost their food and grass, and could not leave Caozhou in a short time.After the defeat of Xue Chongyun City, the entire three prefectures of Pu, Yun, and Qi had lost their military strength.As long as Li Jing sends troops to go around the states and counties, the credit for the recovery will be the town [***].What's more, there are still many grass bandits who have been dispersed in these three states, as well as many bandits who set up flags to rebel.

Fighting requires money and food, and Li Jing doesn't intend to waste so much time in vain.While regaining Zhuzhou and counties, Li Jing happened to wipe out these thieves and escorted all the young and strong back to Liaodong to do free labor.At the same time, he had also been keeping an eye on the cities and counties of the states, planning to move the money and food that the thieves had no time to take away directly back to Dengzhou.And after the Battle of Songzhou, Li Jing also knew very well that if he regained the states and counties, the merchants, wealthy families, etc. in the states and counties, etc., would also give him a sum of filial piety and labor as usual. The sum of money from dozens of counties in several states adds up to a lot, and Li Jing will not let it go.

Although this is done, it is somewhat inconsistent with Li Jing's original approach.But he also knew that this was just a common practice in today's world, and even if Li Jing did this, it would be nothing.What's more, Li Jing knew very well that after this chaos, Tianping and Taining prefectures were almost corrupted. Next, even if the grass army left, the local thieves would still corrupt the place. This place is rotten, he If you don’t take the money now, someone else will take it later.

Changed from interception to pursuit, but the result is very different, especially for Zhen [***], the difference in benefits before and after is huge.With such a change, not only will there be no need to fight desperately with grass thieves, and there will be no casualties, but it will also make great contributions and get a lot of benefits.

As soon as Li Jing said the words, all the generals present were full of praise.This is Zhen [***]'s style, and now the generals are almost used to it, they hardly fight tough battles, and fight smart ones if they want to, and fight profitable ones.

Soon the generals of Zhen [***] unified their opinions, Li Jing ordered Li Zhen and Guo Chengan to stay behind Qianfeng City, and then ordered Guo Shunli to lead the [-] Black Banner Army and Wang Zhong to lead the [-] Japanese Army to stay behind. Zhuang also stayed in Qianfeng.

Li Jing personally led the five armies of Jinjiasheng Jiejun, Yinqiang Jiaojiezhong, Konghe Army, Tielin Army, and Xuanfeng Army with 2 horses, marching westward along Wenshui River and entering Yunzhou.When Li Jing arrived in Yunzhou, Huang Chao had already entered Jeju.Li Jing did not go after him, but dispersed the five armies and sent them to the cities of Yun and Pu respectively.

Four counties in Puzhou, six counties in Yunzhou, and ten counties in two prefectures were mopped up by the five armies of Zhen [***].At this time, although Huang Chao withdrew from Erzhou, there were still many routs of the grass army, as well as the defeated soldiers of the officers and soldiers, causing disasters in groups, and even many hungry people looting everywhere.Landlords of wealthy families in various townships in the local area recruited brave men from the township one after another to form villages to protect themselves.Smaller villages were mostly looted and burned.In the mountains, forests and rivers of Erzhou, there are thieves everywhere.

The town [***] swept past like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, and first recovered ten counties, restored order, set up a list to calm the people, wiped out rogue gangsters, and restored the market.Immediately afterwards, the Five Armies dispatched soldiers and horses to wipe out bandits in the mountains and forests of various counties in a carpet-like manner.

Li Jing personally sits in Yuncheng, Yunzhou, and there is an army of [-] from the town [***] to sweep it down. The thieves who lost leaders like Huang Chao are just a group of mobs, under the sweep of the town [***]'s knives and swords , Collapsing one after another, either being wiped out or surrendering.

A large number of hungry people who were displaced by famine and war were also temporarily resettled.Li Jing directly ordered that those bandits and vagrants who were making trouble, choose men and women over 15 years old and under 40 years old, gather together with the army, and wait to be brought back to Dengzhou together.

In ten days, in just ten days, under the thunderous sweep of Twenty Thousand Town [***], the local order in Pu and Yun prefectures has been restored, the bandits in the mountains and forests have also been wiped out, and those refugees, first Sixty to seventy thousand were killed by Huang Chao in the battle with the officers and soldiers, and more than a hundred thousand were taken away, and now more than one hundred thousand were taken away by Li Jing.Except for those prefectural and county towns and some large villages in Pu and Yun prefectures, the rest of the villages are empty.

Not only did Pu and Yun prefectures suffer huge population losses, but even prefectures such as Cao, Hua, Yan, and Ji also suffered enormous losses.

On the day Li Jing arrived in Yunzhou, the Tianping Army Jiedu envoy brought Cao Quanzhang and other wealthy households out of Juye Ze to meet Li Jing.Li Jing didn't have a good impression of this incompetent Jieshuai, and he just perfunctory casually.Xue Chong originally wanted Li Jing to add him to the function of recovering states and counties, but Li Jing ignored him.

But the next day Xue Chong immediately sent 20 guan in money, and brought many local officials of the Tianping Army. Add a sum, looking at the money, Li Jing did not refuse this time, after accepting the money, with a swipe of the pen, local civil and military officials from various prefectures and counties were added to the credit book for recovering Yun and Pu prefectures.

Xue Chong's reaction to Li Jing's taking away more than [-] young adults was beyond Li Jing's intention. Not only did he not stop him, but he was very happy.In his words, right now the Tianping army can't control these refugees at all. Li Jing took them away, and there will be riots in other places in the province.

After ten days of continuous sweeping, Li Jing ordered the troops to withdraw, and the armies returned the two states and ten cities to the local officials who came out from everywhere.Of course, most of what they got was an empty city, and all the money, food and materials belonging to the government in the city were taken away by the town [***] along with the army.

Faced with this situation, officials from all over the country not only dared not complain at all, but even took the initiative to contact rich and wealthy businessmen from all over the place to collect a large amount of military expenses when the troops were withdrawing, and sent them all the way ten miles away.

After the armies returned to Yuncheng to meet up, Li Jing couldn't help being surprised when he heard the report and saw the soldiers of the armies who had returned with full load, and looked at the carts of supplies.But Gai Yu, who was with the army, told Li Jing that all this is normal.Because Zhen [***]'s behavior is completely in line with the routine at the moment, and even Zhen [***] is doing better than other armies.

The town [***] helped the local government to wipe out the bandits, but it only took some money and food from the government's treasury.But if it is other feudal town troops, they will more or less rob the money of some rich families, and some are even more vicious and greedy than the bandits, directly robbing everyone regardless of the rich and the common people.An army like Li Jing's Zhen[***] who only takes some public money and helps to exterminate bandits, appease refugees, and maintain order is really too rare.

"This time, a total of 50 young men, 200 young women, about 80 shi of grain, more than [-] million guan of money, and more than [-] pieces of cloth were taken! There are about [-] sets of armor and weapons, and about [-] donkeys, horses and cattle More than five thousand heads." Gai Yu reported the results of the battle to Li Jing with some excitement.The land of the Central Plains is indeed not comparable to the frontiers of Daibei. In ten days, two prefectures and ten counties in the Pi District have allowed them to scrape so much oil and water.This is the situation where the grass thieves have already robbed it, especially the population. If such a large population of young and strong people is transported to Liaodong, it will immediately change the appearance of that bitter cold land.

Hearing this harvest, Li Jing also smiled slightly. This harvest was somewhat beyond his expectations, and it was mainly given by those officials and local bold people.

"In this way, the army will carry [-] shi of grain, and the rest of the grain will be stored in Yunzhou temporarily, and the cloth will be stored in the warehouse in Yuncheng first. After we clear the Jishui channel, we will send ships to transport it away." It was difficult to transport away the food all at once, and Li Jing would never give up the food.In the end, it can only be stored here. "The [-] sets of weapons are cheaper. Let's sell them to Xue Chong. If he can't eat the rest, then contact the Li family of Yanzhou Taining Army and Zhang Inspector of Songzhou and sell them. We don't want these weapons. Money, as long as food or cloth, in addition, if it is some other iron materials, etc."

Nearly [-] sets of weapons are mostly stockpiled in the ten counties of the two prefectures, as well as the weapons in the hands of the exterminated bandits.These weapons are too complicated and too bad, Li Jing is not willing to bother to bring so many junk weapons back, and simply digests them on the spot.

Twenty thousand sets of weapons Li Jing didn't like, but Xue Chong needed them very much.He has almost all the soldiers in his hands, and now he has to rebuild the Tianping Army. This batch of weapons is just in need. Although Li Jing offered fifty guan for each set, not including the iron armor, which is obviously very expensive, but Xue Chong still took it all at once. Ten thousand sets.But he couldn't come up with so much money for a while, and wanted to pay on credit, but Li Jing refused.

In the end, it was Li Jing who clicked on him and told him to buy ordnance to reorganize the army for the sake of local peace, and asked him to go to Zhuzhou County below Tianping Town to ask for it.After hearing this, Xue Chong immediately distributed it to the wealthy landlords and merchants below, and even ordinary people collected a sum of money from each of them. 50 yuan is a lot of money, but if it is dispersed, it will still be forced to collect quickly.

Li Jing received 50 guan, and immediately gave Xue Chong [-] sets of ordnance happily, and even gave him an extra [-] sets as a gift. (To be continued.)