Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

"Zhou Lun asked us to wait for a month." Bai Qi sat in the commander's tent and looked at the generals. "He just wants to buy time for Zhong Xiang, or is he deliberately confusing us and showing the enemy that he is weak and cooperates with Zhong Xiang to suddenly come and kill him?" ?”

Yingxuan said: "It should be to help Prime Minister Zhong delay the time."

Wang Yuan ignored that and said: "Our army has two strongholds and a naval force on the side. As long as we hold on and can't get out, we will be in an invincible position."

Lin Chong worriedly asked: "What if Prime Minister Zhong abandons Lujiao Stronghold, divides his troops to defend Xiangyin, and then leads the army south to attack the southern ministries? Those troops in the south are no match for Prime Minister Zhong."

Bai Qi smiled and said, "If Zhong Xiangru had a way to quell the chaos, he would have done so long ago. Why would he come to our place for a visit?"

"But if you give Prime Minister Zhong a month, I'm afraid the two new Jiangxi armies won't be able to stop them," Wang Yuan muttered. "These Jiangxi new armies can only defend the city, but their morale in field operations is low. They couldn't even defeat the Jiangxi rebels last year." To destroy them, we have to rely on the imperial court to send people from Fujian to recruit them."

Lin Chong thought for a while and suggested: "Zhou Lun wants to delay it for a month, and Zhong Xiang wants to attack the Jiangxi soldiers, so they both agree. Our army can secretly send elite troops to attack Chongxiao Village by boat. If there is water, The division is covering Dongting Lake, and it will take half a month for Zhong Xiang and Zhou Lun to receive the news. Once Chongxiao Village is captured, Dingzhou can be attacked to the west and Chenyang can be attacked to the south. These are the generals of the Puppet Chu Emperor Even if we can’t defeat our hometown, as long as we send troops to surround it, we can disrupt the morale of the puppet Chu’s elite troops.”

Everyone looked at Lin Chong and felt that this guy's heart was really dark.

Lin Chong's meaning was very clear. He no longer cared about the officers and soldiers of Jiangxi, Guangxi and the Hunan rebels. It didn't matter how many friendly troops died. Anyway, they are all newly formed troops this year, and those rebels don't even have regular numbers.

If you die, just die!

As long as the main force of the Ming Dynasty in the north achieves its strategic goals, it is acceptable for all the armies in the south to be annihilated.

Moreover, there are enemies everywhere. How can Zhong Xiang be eliminated so easily and quickly?

Bai Qi looked at Wang Yuan, who nodded slowly.

The next day, Bai Qi sent an envoy to contact Zhou Lun and promised to wait for a month.

But Lin Chong was asked to take six thousand elites in batches on warships and grain ships to Chongxiao Village on the west bank of Dongting Lake. The warships pretended to be on a cruise, and the grain ships pretended to be returning to Yuezhou. The soldiers boarded the ships at night, and the fleet left in a grand manner during the day.

Zhou Lun didn't notice anything unusual at all, and thought that the main force of the Ming army was still within the camp.

In order to rush for time, Prime Minister Zhong left all the baggage in Xiangyin, and ordinary troops stayed in Xiangyin to defend, not even Guiyi Jiangkou Village and Pingjiang County. Then, more than 10,000 elite soldiers sailed south and split into two to attack.

Yang Yingcheng led 20,000 Jiangxi new troops and has been attacking the Yunyang village.

Puppet Chu general Yang Hua led 8,000 elite soldiers and fought out of Yunyang Village without any warning.

Yang Yingcheng was caught off guard, threw away his armor and fled back to Chaling. There were a large number of Manichaeans in Chaling County, who set fire to cause chaos at night. Yang Yingcheng fled back to Jiangxi in the chaos, and the Chaling he finally captured was lost.

The two new Jiangxi armies were basically disabled, and Song Huizong's cheap son almost died in the battle.

Yang Yingcheng led the remaining troops to retreat to Yongxin, and his mind was still confused. Aren't the elite of the Pseudo-Chu in the north? How can you still find time to come back and beat yourself up?

But Zhong Xiangqin led his elite troops to Hengyang, and the alert Cao Cheng discovered that the situation had changed. Cao Cheng immediately led his troops to retreat dozens of miles.

Prime Minister Zhong originally planned to chase all the way and eliminate Cao Cheng's army, but he received a battle report from Leiyang in the southeast: the miners from Guiyang Prison were besieging Leiyang.

Prime Minister Zhong was about to relieve the siege of Leiyang, but Shaoyang in the west was gone again. Li Gong and Yang Zaixing cooperated to capture Shaoyang.

The situation became more critical. Zhong Xiang, who was stationed in Hengyang, had enemies on three sides and no longer knew where to attack first!

Prime Minister Zhong first divided his troops to strengthen Leiyang's defensive strength. Then, regardless of Li Gong and Yang Zaixing in Shaoyang, he personally led his elite troops to pursue Cao Cheng by boat along the Xiangjiang River.

Cao Cheng was defeated and did not stop until he retreated to Qiyang.

Zhong Xiang did not dare to pursue anymore, because Li Gong and Yang Zaixing came to kill them and had already captured Xidu Town (later Hengyang County).

The guard there, Fu Sheng, was also a general of the Chu army, and was sent by Zhong Xiang to guard the stronghold. But there was only a water fortress without city walls. Fu Sheng had only second-line troops in his hands. Their morale was low and their armor was not good. However, Yang Zaixing led his troops to ascend first. General Fu Sheng was stabbed to death by Yang Zaixing!

Prime Minister Zhong rushed back with his troops and managed to secure Hengyang City.

At this point, it was difficult for Prime Minister Zhong to leave the city to fight, and no matter how fierce the elite soldiers were, they were not invincible. All the way to the battlefield, the casualties increased day by day, and the physical strength was serious, so they had to stay in the city to rest for a while.

But the Chu army also achieved amazing results. The two new Jiangxi armies and Cao Cheng's army were all crippled by the Chu army.

Zhong Xiang's fatal flaw was that there were no decent strategists in the entire Chu State, and there was a lack of reasonable strategic planning from the beginning.

This time, the elite Chu army went south and attacked and defeated the enemy one after another. It was more like a mad dog under siege, which opened its mouth and bit people randomly after being beaten. He did bite many people, but he was tied around the neck. The more he struggled, the tighter the rope became.

Moreover, they were reluctant to abandon their territory, so that they could not shrink their troops. There were a large number of prefectures and counties to the west of Dongting Lake, and troops were assigned to defend every strategic location.

In other words, from the beginning when Prime Minister Zhong started his army, there was no strategic plan and he only chose the direction of expansion based on difficulty!

In the territory of Da Chu, the truly powerful strategists were either killed by Zhong Xiang or ran away.

…

Chongxiao Village.

The large area of ​​Dongting Lake here will turn into fertile farmland in a few hundred years. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, "Huguang is ripe, and the world is full". This was achieved by reclaiming land from lakes. Of course, it was also due to the alluvial sediment of the Yuanjiang River.

The Chu army has four strongholds in this direction, namely: Chongxiao Village, Dingzhou, Chenyang, and Yuanjiang.

Since Dongting Lake was controlled by the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult for Prime Minister Zhong to gather troops to fight here, so all troops were stationed separately. And there are not many troops. They mainly rely on gathering people to defend the city - this is the headquarters of Manichaeism!

After Huang Zuo read the letter sent by the Ming army, he frowned and said no more.

Liu Rui was illiterate and asked, "What's in the letter?"

Huang Zuo sighed and said: "The thieves shot letters into the city in Dingzhou, Chenyang and Yuanjiang, saying that you and I have surrendered to Emperor Zhu."

"Who would believe this?" Liu Rui sneered.

"Maybe no one believes it, but some people may believe it. People in the three cities must be in panic," Huang Zuo said. "If thieves and pirates dare to separate their troops and come to our side, I'm afraid the master will encounter big trouble. The letter also said, Hengyang has been lost, and I have been besieged in Changsha for a long time."

Liu Rui had a serious look on his face: "It's fake, how could Hengyang be gone?"

Huang Zuo muttered: "It's hard to say."

"Boom boom boom!"

There was a series of cannon fire, and the Ming Dynasty Navy began to bombard the water village again.

This went on for many days, with the Army firing letters first, and then the Navy firing artillery shells.

Today was a little different. After the bombardment, Yingxuan came alone in a boat.

"Brother Ying, we all thought you were dead, but we didn't expect you to be elsewhere." Huang Zuo was a little happy, but also a little uncomfortable.

Huang Zuo used to be a Dongting Lake water bandit who followed Ying Xuan. When officers and soldiers encircled him, Ying Xuan lay dormant for a while and continued to work as a thief, but Huang Zuo fled back to his hometown to work as a tenant. Later, when he met Zhong Xiang's missionary, Huang Zuo became Zhong Xiang's apprentice again.

Liu Rui was the leader of the rebel army in Anhua. He responded to the rebellion and defected to Zhong Xiang. He claimed to be religious but had not recited the scriptures for a few days.

Yingxuan said: "What are your plans?"

Liu Rui asked: "Hengyang is really gone?"

"All the six states in the south rebelled, and Guangxi officers and soldiers went north. Tens of thousands of Jiangxi officers and soldiers also came from Liling and Chaling. How can the Chu army in Hengyang be defended?" Yingxuan did not want to lie to his friends, but he could tell the truth. Deliberately misleading.

Huang Zuo was so angry that he slapped his thigh: "I have already said that those people in the south cannot be trusted. They are all speculators!"

Yingxuan began to tell the truth again: "Zhou Lun promised to surrender in one month, and there are still twenty days left. He is a loyal man and wants to delay it for Master Zhong for a month."

"He can do this kind of thing." Liu Rui believed it immediately.

Yingxuan continued: "The Ming Dynasty did not invade the Song Dynasty. You two have spies in the north. You must know how the Ming Dynasty governs the people."

The large area from the Yangtze River to Dongting Lake was conquered only last year. The imperial court selected officials carefully in order to win the trust of the Manichaeans through benevolent government.

Huang Zuo and Liu Rui, whose jurisdiction is close to the territory of the Ming Dynasty, have eye spies in Anxiang and Huarong, and are very aware of the benevolent politics of the Ming Dynasty.

Ordinary people may not understand, but how could Huang Zuo, Liu Rui, Zhou Lun and others turn a blind eye?

Zhou Lun was willing to surrender after one month because he felt that the Ming Dynasty was different from Zhao and Song Dynasty, and his soldiers could survive as common people. If it were the Southern Song Dynasty, he would probably rather die than surrender!

Huang Zuo remained silent and looked at Liu Rui quietly.

Liu Rui rebelled because he couldn't live a good life. He only became religious after the uprising. There are many people like him.

Yingxuan asked: "Do you think this Dachu can survive this year? If it survives this year, what about next year?"

Liu Rui was worried.

Due to problems in the administrative system, the situation in Dachu states is very complicated.

Initially, Dharma altars were set up in prefectures, counties, townships, and villages, and the altar leaders engaged in administration while preaching. After collecting taxes, a small part is retained for self-employment, and the majority is turned over to supply the army step by step.

Due to successive years of fighting, the higher-level altars were in a hurry to urge food supplies, and the lower-level altars were frantically urging food supplies. At first, the people tightened their belts and were willing to hand over food to the Chu army, but gradually they found that this situation was going nowhere, and more and more farmers began to hide food secretly.

It was similar to the merchants. Initially, the merchants were expelled and everything was arranged by the altar leader.

But it soon became too much. The allocation of various materials was unbalanced and always delayed. So merchants were allowed to exist, and many merchants were actually relatives of the rebel leaders.

Because the altar leader often had conflicts with the generals, changes were made again last winter, and military control was implemented in the area around Dongting Lake. The guarding general can be captured by the military, political and religious forces!

For example, in Chongxiao Town and surrounding rural areas, it was Huang Zuo who had the final say. He usually had to raise most of his own military rations, and the Dachu court would only transfer a batch every quarter. In addition, all the people are mobilized on the front line to become soldiers, and every peasant family is required to send out soldiers to practice in their spare time.

Military rations are usually adequate.

But now it is wartime, and many nearby farmers have been recruited and gathered in Chongxiao Village for defense. The consumption of military rations will inevitably increase exponentially.

Yingxuan asked if he could survive this year, but the actual situation is that if the Chu court does not send food again, the military rations in Chongxiao Village can only last for one or two months at most!

"A loyal person like Zhou Lun is willing to surrender..." Yingxuan didn't finish the sentence because it was too hurtful.

Huang Zuo and Liu Rui looked at each other, then turned away with guilty conscience.

Yingxuan added: "As long as you two are willing to surrender, the recruited peasants and soldiers can go home immediately, and all taxes this year will be exempted. The Ming Dynasty will not take back the land distributed to the people in Chu, and the people will continue to cultivate it."

Huang Zuo struggled for a while and looked at Liu Rui several times, but found that the other party had no response.

He stood up suddenly and knelt down: "Brother Ying, I am willing to surrender to the Ming Dynasty!"

Liu Rui twisted and knelt down.