Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 463 87 Wei Jun Gu Fang Mausoleum - 2

Luo Xianshi said worriedly: "If you want to take the road of Dajiang, you have to pass through the place controlled by Jiangling Navy. What about Jiangling Navy?" So far, Jiangling Navy has not surrendered to Ezhou.The so-called peers are enemies, and they all eat water.Although Luo Xianshi was already under the command of the imperial court's Baoyi Youjun, he still couldn't let go of his vigilance against the Jiangling Navy. Presumably, the Jiangling Navy would do the same to these former Jingxiang water bandits.

"Although Hao Ting, the commander of the Jiangling Navy, is unwilling to express his attitude, he is still waiting to see the success or failure, and he will not easily break his face with us. However, as the saying goes, the soldiers are not tired of deception. The reinforcements took the road from the river to Guizhou, and then turned north It is best to hide this route from the eyes and ears of the northern captives. From the perspective of the last general, it is better to make a big fanfare and declare that we will form a road with the Zhenjiang, first open up the waterway in Xiangyang, and then join forces with Xiangyang to rescue Fangzhou. In fact, we pretend to be Merchant ships headed west against the great river and went north quietly ashore in Guizhou, which could catch the Liao army by surprise."

Shi Jingkui stood up and gestured on the map with his hands.Luo Xian nodded his head, hesitantly asked: "Will the Jiangling navy really let it go?" The other generals also showed worry in their eyes, Shi Jingkui looked at Zhao Xingde, and the two exchanged glances.

Prior to this, Zhao Xingde and Shi Jingkui had specifically discussed the matter of recruiting the Jiangling navy.Because the Jiangling navy is stuck between Shu and Ezhou, threatening the water passage from Xia to Song.In the future, a large number of military equipment, food and grass sent by the Xia Kingdom to rescue Ezhou, and even soldiers and horses for the Eastern Expedition may pass through this waterway.Therefore, if Ezhou cannot control the Jiangling Navy, the Shu Kingdom Navy will also go east to provoke, find an excuse to punish the Jiangling Navy, and then hand over Jiangling to Ezhou.Now that the Baoyi army wants to use the road to rescue Fangling, it is a good time to find out the attitude of the Jiangling Navy.

Zhao Xingde nodded and said affirmatively, "Don't worry, there won't be any 'chaos' in Jiangling."

The generals saw that the two of them were so sure, and they always had something to hold on to, so they didn't question it anymore.Lu Mingyu sneered and said: "If the navy is in trouble for us, we can simply take down Jiangling." Next, we will discuss how the various ministries will send troops.

The headquarters of the Baoyi Army now has more than 2000 soldiers and horses, most of them are recruited by Jingxiang water bandits, and a small part are volunteer soldiers from prefectures and counties led by the original Baoyi Army soldiers.Zhao Xingde is the commander of the fake Baoyi army, Shi Jingkui is the staff officer, and the lower part is divided into left and right sides. Lu Mingyu is in command of the left army, and Luo Xianshi is in command of the left army. They each have more than [-] people under their command.Shi Jingkui also led the Ya Bing Battalion of more than [-] people.

When the Baoyi Army was first established, Zhao Xingde rejected Chen Dong's suggestion that he use prefectural and county volunteers or imperial government soldiers as tooth soldiers, and instead selected elite warriors from the various Jingxiang water bandits to build the army. Ya barracks, not only that, Lu Mingyu and Luo Xianshi's subordinates also selected elite subordinates respectively, and formed two other Ya barracks with more than [-] people each.Usually Zhao Xingde lived in the big camp, Shi Jingkui, Lu Mingyu and Luo Xian led the camp ten rounds to watch the night.The generals of the Baoyi Army were very moved when they saw him so sincerely, without the slightest suspicion. Gradually, even the quarrels among the many Jingxiang heroes who recruited in became much less.

After the military discussion, the generals will prepare separately.Zhao Xingde first went to the town to make an agreement with Yue Fei. Both sides falsely claimed that the Baoyi army and the town would go north together to open up Xiangyang, water and land, and then rescue Fangzhou.Shi Jingkui and Du Chuijiao went to Ezhou's arsenal to search for useful armor. As a result, most of the good armor in Ezhou's arsenal was distributed to the town police, and the rest except for the tattered and rusted ones, only some paper armors were still intact. So Shi Jingkui picked out five thousand collars, which was better than nothing.He was worried that the paper armor would not be able to withstand the arrows, so he worked hard with the munitions office to squeeze out more than 3000 iron helmets, so that the soldiers of the Baoyi Army could be regarded as equipped with a full set of armor.

"That's all there is in the arsenal, you can use it first." Shi Jingkui felt a little guilty when handing over the weapons.The armor used by the navy in Shuzhong has a whole piece of steel on the chest, lined with rattan armor and sponge, which can block arrows, prevent them from being cut by knives, and have enough buoyancy.In Shi Jingkui's eyes, the paper armor can only be regarded as a sham, but when the paper armor was distributed, all the sailors were jubilant.

"This thing is good, it's light enough." Xia Mao'er put on the paper armor, waved the steel knife twice, and grinned, "This is something only available to the imperial navy. I heard that Jiangling is still reluctant to use it. , are all locked in the warehouse." He raised his hands and feet again, and laughed, "I have money to take, and I am sending soldiers, Brother Lu, this time I recruited the right one. I have tried it with Zhao Juntou. Just want it."

If paper armor is made well, it can still withstand arrows, but things are not perfect, because this armor is made of paper, which is easy to damage, and it is afraid of "damp" and insects.And the officers in the battalions all over the country simply hid the paper armor in the treasury, took it out regularly to bask in the sun, and wondered whether it was replaced regularly or not.

Lu Mingyu hid the smile in his eyes, and said with a serious face: "After you receive this batch of armor, go to General Zhao's tent to plead guilty." Just the day before yesterday, Xia Mao'er went to Jiayu County to demand payment, and unexpectedly brought the original kidnapping ticket for extortion The iron brain hoops, sticks and other things used at that time were thrown away in the county government office. Seeing that the county magistrate was about to be punished if he didn't speculate, the county magistrate was so frightened that he quickly summoned the gentry of the county school. After scraping together more than 5000 shi of grain to send the evil spirit away, Jiayu's official letter of complaint arrived in Ezhou.

"Yes, big brother!" Xia Mao'er patted his chest and said, quite boldly.

"Get off!" Lu Mingyu scolded.Xia Mao'er just laughed and walked on.Others are careless, Zhao Xingde has always been very lenient in the means of extorting wages, this apology is at best a show.Compared with this, it is still a good deal to get real food and wages.

Sure enough, after Zhao Xingde reprimanded Xia Mao'er in front of people from the Military Quartermaster's Office, he was punished to serve in the former army to serve as a prisoner because it was the time for him to serve in the army.And the so-called "former army" was the Baoyi Left Army led by Lu Mingyu.So this penalty is equal to nothing.This matter was originally initiated by the Military Quartermaster Office for Baoyi Army Baitiao, and the Military Quartermaster Office couldn't pursue it too closely. When Jiayu County Magistrate learned about the disposition, he had no choice but to admit that he was unlucky, but he didn't dare to deal with the Military Quartermaster Office Baitiao. up.All the taxes that should be paid are paid in full, so that the military supply office will not give this thing to the Baoyi army to collect the bill.

Soldiers are precious and fast, and after declaring with great fanfare that he was preparing to join forces with the Zhenjiang Army in the Northern Expedition, Zhao Xingde took a boat back to the west of the river.Because it is a long-distance aid, and it is necessary to conceal people's eyes and ears, each army going west has a scale of more than 500 people, led by various generals.Zhao Xingde was only protected by the Ya Bing Battalion carried by three boats.

The weather was beautiful, the wind on the river was straight and strong, and the east wind blew up the hard sails. Although it was sailing against the current, the speed of the boat was not slow under the impetus of the oars below the deck.Most of the soldiers in the Yabing Battalion were from water pirates. Shi Jingkui was from Shu and was quite familiar with water warfare. He divided his subordinates into three squads. And practice martial arts on the deck.If the soldiers commit a crime, the rest shift will be canceled and the rowing shift will be added, and the reward for the soldiers will be to reduce the rowing shift and increase the rest shift.Zhao Xingde saw that he handled the water affairs in an orderly manner, so he let him do it. He didn't intervene, and only focused on how to fight the battle after arriving in Fangzhou.

............

A drizzle began to fall outside Fangzhou City. In the drizzle, the green hills on all sides looked lush and green, and the air carried the fragrance of the growth of all things. This is a scene of vitality in early spring.The misty and rainy city walls are like in the painting.However, even in the rainy weather, the Liao army did not stop attacking the city. Groups of soldiers swarmed up against the simple ladders, climbing up against the arrows and trees on the top of the city, and the sound of fighting and screaming was mixed. At the same time, the wooden rolling stones fell to the ground with a "boom", and the sound of "bang bang" when the stone was thrown on the city wall sounded from time to time.

On the top of the city, Zhizhou Gao Zhen was wearing the robe of an ordinary soldier. He was looking to the east with his brows furrowed.Since the Liao army's soldiers suppressed the border, Fangzhou has asked for help from Xiangyang, Jinzhou and Ezhou at the same time, and has not seen a single reinforcement so far.

"Is there any news from Xiangyang?"

"There is still no news." Chen Keli said in a low voice.

Although it is in the same camp as Ezhou, Gao Zhen has greater hopes for Xiangyang reinforcements.After all, there are [-] troops stationed in Xiangyang, and it is close to Fangzhou. The troops from Xiangyang will arrive in a few days.Gao Zhen even secretly planned that if Xiangyang saves Fangzhou, the southeast battalion will take advantage of the situation. Under the situation, he does not want to "fight" with the same room, so he has to resign from the official position of Fangzhou Zhizhou and go to Hubei alone to join Chen. East.

Fangzhou City was originally a city built on a small plain surrounded by mountains. At this moment, the young and even healthy women in the city have been mobilized by Gao Zhen and Chen Keli, and more than 5000 people have joined forces , Take turns to defend the city.Compared with the continuous Liao army camps outside the city, the small Fangzhou City is like a flat boat in the stormy sea.Fortunately, this Fangzhou city was built by the famous official Chen Xiliang. The city was built very solidly. The Liao army bombarded it with trebuchets for several days. Except for destroying some towers and wooden war sheds, it did not cause too much damage to the city wall. harm.In the past few days, although the Khitans have not personally attacked the city, the signing army has already attacked the city very violently. The arrows under the city and the defenders are fierce. I was worried that the Liao army would slaughter the city to vent their anger after it was broken. The city had already been broken.

Gao Zhen couldn't help but 'touch' his pocket. There was a letter there, which was written to him by Chen Yuyi, the grandson of Mr. Xiliang who built Fangzhou City.Xia Guo, Xia Guo, he sighed, "Far waters can't quench thirst."

The light rain was still falling, and the rain and blood mixed into deep and shallow streams, invading the red soil.