Late Tang

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After Wang Jingwu's defeat, he went south to attack Mizhou, captured Anqiu, Gaomi, Zhucheng, and Juxian, and occupied the whole territory of Mizhou. Every village must be robbed and every county must be attacked.Cui Yunqing sent troops from the Taining Army Jiedu. Although Wang Jingwu was repelled, Mizhou was almost like locusts passing through. Not only the city was destroyed, the village was destroyed, but even the population was robbed.

"God wants to cause people to perish, they must first make them crazy!" Li Jing could only shake his head and sigh after receiving the news of Wang Jing's frenzied actions.But the more so, the less Li Jing would have to worry about Wang Jingwu.Ziqing Town has been turned into ruins by him in this way. How long can he hold on to all the young and strong as soldiers? Without Li Jing's action, he will perish by himself.

Gongsun Lan sat next to Li Jing and sighed.Wang Jingwu was crazy, but Li Jing didn't seem to intend to send troops to destroy him.

"Eliminate one Wang Jingwu, and there will be more. Troubled times are coming, and there will only be more such tragic things in the future! We can't help everyone, only when we grow stronger, can we protect more people." Li Jing lamented However, if Wang Jingwu's behavior now is compared with the remnant Tang Dynasty after the Huangchao Uprising in history, it is really nothing.The three armies of Huang Chao, Qin Zongquan, and Sun Ru are real cannibals.

In October, Wang Xianzhi's troops attacked Tangzhou, and Huang Chao's troops attacked Dengzhou.In November, Wang Xianzhi's troops entered Shannan and captured Ying and Fuzhou, and their momentum became stronger and stronger.In December, the grass bandits entered Huainan again. In less than a month, the two grass bandits cooperated tacitly and swept the five prefectures of Shen, Guang, Lu, Shou, and Shu. The imperial court asked other towns for help, and sent people to Dengzhou several times to ask Li Jing to send troops to rescue them.However, although Li Jing received requests for help several times, he never sent a single soldier to the south.

The imperial court's previous arrangements were to protect Luoyang and Chang'an to prevent thieves from westward.

At the end of December, both Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao's troops arrived at Qizhou, an important town.

"Have Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao teamed up?" Li Jing asked.

Li Jing already knew that Wang Xianzhi died in the city of Yizhou long ago, and the current Wang Xianzhi was actually just a puppet substitute for Wang Xianzhi's old department, Shang Junzhang and others.It looks somewhat similar to Wang Xianzhi, so they used it as a banner.However, the effect has been good. With this name, Shang Junchang's department has been able to read more than Huang Chao, and is on an equal footing.

"I heard that Huang Chao has recruited Lord Shang and others several times, but because of the Yizhou battle, the two grass thieves have long since mistrusted each other."

"Then why did they cooperate so well in this series of battles?" Li Jing was a little surprised. The grass thieves really cooperated very well, almost advancing and retreating together.

"It's all due to the situation. After the battle of Yizhou, the two troops led by Huang Chao and Mr. Shang were only a thousand. If they didn't rely on each other, they would have been annihilated by the government army. But even so, they never We didn't get together." Gongsun Lan said.

Gongsun Lan was right. After the battle of Yizhou, the two bandits hid for several months to lick their wounds.Then they ran all the way to the vicinity of Dongdu, and then they suddenly shot together.Li Jing reckoned that the two teams should have been in contact a long time ago, but they have always mistrusted each other. In the end, both sides were too weak, so they had no choice but to reach the current situation.It seems that the actions are in tacit agreement, but every time they get very close, they attack each other in different ways.

After they captured Ruzhou, it can be said that they regained some strength.

Ruzhou City is not very big, but it is very close to Luoyang, the eastern capital of the Tang Dynasty.In Luoyang, there are many courtiers without old age, and the mansions and manors of famous families are built here.The grass thieves went straight to the city of Luoyang, causing many respectable gentry bureaucrats, as well as wealthy and wealthy businessmen who were afraid of being equalized by the sky, to flee Luoyang in batches.

On the contrary, this was the biggest shock to the court since the grass bandits raised their troops.

Although 10,000+ thieves and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses reported to the imperial court before, those are just a series of numbers. them.

But when these grass thieves who had been wiped out gathered up again in a blink of an eye, and killed them directly at the foot of Dongdu, and they were not far from Chang'an, these officials finally felt the threat of the thieves at close range.

Therefore, since the grass bandit uprising, the recruitment that no one has ever mentioned has finally been proposed.

The highest official who advocated security was Wang Duo, the Prime Minister of the Yuan Yizong Dynasty who was transferred from Xuanwu Town to the middle of the court. Feng strongly demanded to recruit the grass thief.

Wang Duo, courtesy name Zhaofan, came from the Wang family of Taiyuan, a well-known official family. His uncle Wang Bo served as prime minister twice in the Muzong and Wenzong dynasties.Wang Duo himself wrote very good handwriting. He passed the Jinshi examination during the Huichang period of Emperor Wuzong, and then his official career went smoothly. chapter matter.In terms of personal quality, Wang Duo's ability is average, he is a typical big bureaucrat in the late Tang Dynasty.

The main reason why Wang Duo was so anxious was that the captured Ruzhou Inspector Wang Liao was his cousin.

Tens of thousands of 10,000+ people died in the war, and Wang Xiangguo would not even blink.But if the one captured was his own brother, then Wang Xiangguo couldn't sit still.

Fortunately, brother Cong was captured instead of killed, which gave Wang Duo a chance to rescue his brother.

After thinking about it for a long time, Wang Duo immediately relied on his old qualifications to find the emperor Li Xuan, and pulled the emperor not to let him play ball and chess, but said basket after basket of words.In the end, Li Xuan couldn't bear the long-winded words, and worried that it would be troublesome if Dongdu was breached by grass thieves.Therefore, on September [-]th, Li Xuan issued an edict to recruit security, as long as Wu Xianzhi, Shang Junchang and others surrendered, their sins would be pardoned, and they would be appointed officials.

However, although Wang Duo had obtained the imperial decree of pardon, he suddenly found that it seemed more difficult to send this decree to the grass thieves.

These grass thieves roam around and plunder, and don't stay in one place for a long time, and they don't even have an old nest.

Although they sent brave imperial guards and bold eunuchs to preach the decree, they found only the ruins of the city that had been raided and looted, and Wang Xianzhi and the others could not be found at all.For several months, Wang Duo's anxious hair turned gray, but the imperial decree still hadn't been delivered to the grass thief.

In fact, 'Wang Xianzhi' is now waiting to be recruited. To be precise, Shang Junchang and others are waiting for the day when they are recruited.

Ever since the boss Wang Xianzhi had his head cut off, the ambitions of this group of people have almost been extinguished.It was dangerous to be a salt seller back then, but the risk of rebellion was even greater.Even Wang Xianzhi didn't want to be famous and face, and fled many times, but in the end his head was cut off and sent to Chang'an Weizhong. Even now, Shang Junchang and his group don't know whether Wang Xianzhi died at the hands of the officers and soldiers It was still Huang Chao, the former brother of the Salt Gang.

At the beginning, the head of the family wanted to kill and set fire to be recruited, but unfortunately it didn't work.

After Yizhou was defeated, someone proposed to join the army.Some said they voted for Song Wei, some said they voted for Li Jing, and some said they voted for Ximen Sigong.However, this proposal was directly rejected by Lord Shang. Even if he wanted to recruit security, he had to make a noise, and it was possible to be recruited when he was in the limelight.They were defeated just now, with no more than a thousand soldiers and horses, and even the boss died, how could they be recruited.

After hiding in the mountains for a long time, Shang Junchang accidentally found a person who looked very similar to Wang Xianzhi.Immediately impersonated this person as Wang Xianzhi, and then re-raised the banner of Cao Jun.Huang Chao contacted them several times, wanting to join forces again, but Mr. Shang refused to agree.In his eyes, Huang Chao is a born rebellious person.Although he finally agreed to Huang Chao's other proposal, to act together but maintain his reading ability, it was just that Mr. Shang had thought about taking this opportunity to make another noise so that he could accept the recruitment.It was also because of this that when he learned that the governor Wang he had just captured was actually the cousin of the prime minister of the current dynasty after breaking through Ruzhou, he immediately felt that he had grasped a stepping stone to Zhao'an, prosperity and wealth.

Lord Shang felt that there were rare goods to live in, so he ordered Wang Shao to be treated well, and he was wrapped up in the army, waiting for a price.

The governor Wang, who was still in shock, discovered the secret in Shang Junchang's heart. In order to survive, he hurriedly did what he liked, and vowed that he was willing to use his cousin's power in the court to realize the transformation of the general from a bandit to an official. Thread the needle.However, the Tang court also had no chance to know Shang Junchang's thoughts and Wang Shao's advice.

On the one hand, the imperial court is interested, and on the other hand, Shang Junchang and others are affectionate, but this offer has been unable to be achieved for a long time.

The envoys sent by the Son of Heaven of the Tang Dynasty and Wang Xiangguo chased after Shang Junzhang and other grassroots all the way, but Shang Junzhang and others worriedly took Wang Liao and the gang of brothers, constantly moving around, fighting north and south.

The two sides passed each other repeatedly and missed each other.

When Lord Shang and others arrived at the city of Qizhou, the grass thief finally had a chance.

Song Wei, the envoy of the imperial court to recruit grass bandits, was still recuperating in Chang'an. Although the two deputy envoys Du Ke and Cui Anqian hurried all the way, they were still far away from Qizhou.

The governor of Qizhou saw the grass thieves besieging Qizhou, and he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot.

However, Wang Lian in the bandit army outside the city was very excited, because he finally met a suitable candidate who could send news to the court and lead him out of the den of thieves.

Pei Wo, governor of Qizhou, was born as a Jinshi, and the examiner who took the exam was Wang Duo, Wang Duo's protégé.Wang Liao and Pei Wo were also old acquaintances. He quickly suggested to Mr. Shang that the siege should be suspended. He was willing to contact Pei Wo and ask him to send a message to his cousin, asking Wang Duo to seek the imperial court's offer.

Pei Wo in the city was also taken aback when he saw Wang Lie. He didn't expect him to be alive. After hearing his request, he nodded and agreed without the slightest hesitation.Whether he should recruit these grass thieves or not, all he thinks about now is how to keep Qizhou, and keep himself from falling into the hands of thieves. As for the rest, let him alone! (To be continued.)