Early the next morning, Wu Jie led 7,000 remnant troops to retreat to Nanzheng County. The wheat fields along the way were filled with thick smoke. Even dozens of miles away, Wu Jie saw the thick smoke over Nanzheng County. He knew that Liu Ziyu was burning
Out of the warehouse.
There is no way around this. Nanzheng County is not a military defense city, and the city walls are not high and not strong. Once the Jin soldiers attack the city in a large scale, they will definitely not be able to defend it, and burning the warehouses will be a last resort.
"Du Tong, Magistrate Liu is here!"
Wu Jie urged his horse to meet him, only to see Liu Ziyu coming with a few of his men.
"Prefect Liu, have all the food and supplies been burned?"
Liu Ziyu shook his head, "I have transferred the food and military supplies a long time ago. The people in the city have basically been evacuated. Most of the wheat has been harvested and transported to Mian County. A lot of supplies are also there. The ones that were burned were heavy ones that couldn't be transported away."
Baggage and fodder.”
Wu Jie was overjoyed. In this case, the losses could be minimized.
"Where is the Xuanfu envoy?" Wu Jie asked again.
"He left for Chengdu that night. Without his constraints, I could evacuate people and supplies. It's a good thing that he left!"
Speaking of this, Liu Ziyu looked at the army behind him. There were only six or seven thousand people, and many were injured.
"That's all there is left of more than 20,000 people?"
Wu Jie snorted, "Fu Xuan's army withdrew before the enemy's sneak attack. I don't know where they went? I could only organize new soldiers to fight against the Jin soldiers, and suffered heavy casualties. I had to wait until the soldiers guarding the gate withdrew.
If we don't retreat, we really can't withstand the attack of the Jin soldiers, and most of the new soldiers will be killed or injured."
Liu Ziyu's eyes became solemn, "Could it be that Fu Xuan collaborated with the enemy?"
"Although I also find it strange, but there is no evidence. He can also be said to be led by local hunters. The key is how did he know that the Jin soldiers would attack? So he retreated early. I will report this matter to the Xuanfu Envoy."
"Ignore Fu Xuan for now, what should we do next?"
Wu Jie said worriedly: "There are 100,000 puppet Qi troops facing off at Dashan Pass. It is impossible for Wu Zhang to divide his troops and go south. Otherwise, he can only count on your son's 4,000 troops. But once he leaves, what will happen to the North Xianren Pass? If you know
Wherever Fu Xuan's army is, I can arrange it, a ten thousand eight-character army!"
"He may have gone to Bashu. I heard some wheat harvesters say this morning that an army robbed the last batch of wheat in the middle of the night yesterday. There were about ten thousand people. It is estimated that it was Fu Xuan's army. He may have gone to the rice warehouse.
The road goes south."
Wu Jie sighed and said helplessly: "Then we can only divide our troops. I will lead 3,000 people to Mian County, and the Lord will lead 4,000 people to guard Jianmen Pass."
Liu Ziyu pondered for a moment and said: "Actually, we can ask Chen Qing for help. He has more than 10,000 troops who can support us."
"But isn't he fighting the Xixia army?"
"The war is over!"
Liu Ziyu smiled and said: "I received a letter from my eldest son Liu Zan yesterday. Chen Qing has defeated the 80,000 Xixia army and the Xixia army has withdrawn."
'Defeat 80,000 Xixia troops!'
Wu Jie was dumbfounded after hearing this. After a long while, he sighed and said: "This is the Yangtze River where the waves behind push the waves ahead. The future generations are to be feared!"
"Yes! I couldn't believe it when I heard the news yesterday. I had an intuition at the time. As long as he is in Sichuan and Shaanxi, we will be able to regain our homeland and regain the Shaanxi Road sooner or later. The key is that we must not let Zhu Shengfei harm him.
.”
Wu Jie nodded, "You are right, he is the fire of the Western Army and must not be extinguished."
At this moment, Wu Jie was excited and said: "Let's do this! Let's jointly write a letter asking for help and send it to Beixianrenguan, and ask Liu Zan to forward it to him. Let's see if this guy will give us the face to come to the rescue."
Liu Ziyu chuckled and said: "I will add Wang Yan's name and the three of them will jointly sign it, so it will be a sure thing."
...........
Wu Jie and Liu Ziyu finally agreed that Wu Jie would lead 4,000 troops to Mian County, and Liu Ziyu would lead 3,000 troops to Jianmen Pass. There were still 1,000 defenders at Jianmen Pass, who could supplement some troops.
After the two of them broke up, a trust eagle flew from Nanzheng County, circled in the air several times, and flew to Xianren Pass in the northwest...
Chen Qing recaptured Chengji County without bloodshed. When the two thousand puppet Qi troops guarding Chengji County heard that Chen Renmo had led an army of ten thousand to fight back, they were so frightened that they abandoned the city and fled towards Longzhou in panic.
Chen Qing led his army into the city and won a warm welcome from the people in Chengji County. Tens of thousands of people came out of the city and lined the streets to welcome the arrival of Chen Qing's army.
Not only because Chen Qing was the envoy of the Song Dynasty, but more importantly because of Chen Qing's relief to the people at critical moments. Even if his army left, he still left five pecks of rice for each household. He also organized the people to farm to make a living. Although corn was
He was snatched away by the puppet Qi army, but the beans were already ripe, and the winter melons in front and behind the house also grew, saving the lives of countless people.
The common people support this army from the bottom of their hearts. They are the only army of Qinzhou. This strong sense of identity is the common belief in the hearts of every common people.
When tens of thousands of people cooked pots of pulp to welcome the Song army into the city, without food, they could only boil pulp from wild fruits to express their support.
Amidst continuous bursts of warm cheers on both sides of the street, the Song army's helmets were bright and the queues were neat. Chen Qing waved to the people on his horse from time to time. At this time, dozens of elders knelt down in front of Chen Qing's horse.
Chen Qing quickly got off his horse and helped them up, "Elders, there is no need for this, please get up quickly!"
One of the first elders shed tears and said: "I beg General Chen to stay in Chengji County and don't abandon us again!"
Chen Qing said apologetically: "I am the envoy of Qinzhou. Of course I will not abandon the people and run away. I led the army to Ganquan Fort because of the invasion of the Xixia army. Who knew that the puppet Qi army would suddenly march westward at this time? I really
We were all too busy to do our job, which made everyone feel wronged."
"We have no intention of blaming the general. It's just that the puppet Qi army is greedy and cruel, no less than the Jin army. Everyone is living like a year. We really don't want Chengji County to fall into their hands again."
In fact, Chen Qing also heard from Liu Scarzi that the puppet Qi army did not exploit the lower class people very much. They also knew that they could not extract money from them. They mainly targeted the wealthy families and continued to extort money. The wealthy families in Chengji County were complaining.
If they buy food at high prices, will the puppet Qi army give it to them? In stark contrast, of course they miss themselves.
Chen Qing got on his horse, waved his hands vigorously, and shouted loudly to thousands of pairs of eyes looking at him enthusiastically: "Don't worry, everyone, even if the puppet Qi army comes again, I will never give up Chengji County to them. I will definitely give it to them."
Fight bloody battle with them to the end!"
The people around suddenly burst into cheers...
The 12,000 Song troops returned to their long-awaited army in high spirits. The Puppet Qi troops withdrew in a hurry. The camp was in a mess, and their discarded garbage and items could be seen everywhere.
Chen Qing asked Yang Yuanqing to lead two thousand soldiers to clean up the general camp, and asked counselor Zhang Xiao to invite the general judge Wang Huai.
Not long after, Wang Huai hurried over with more than a dozen officials.
Seeing Chen Qing, Wang Huai said with a face full of shame: "This humble position is worthy of my great love for the envoy!"
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said, "I know you can't help yourself. As long as you try your best to protect the people, even if you do things for the Jin people, it is just a vain act. It is not your sincerity. Of course I will not blame you. What's more, you also protected my thirty
Famous subordinates."
"Thank you for your understanding, envoy. Thirty soldiers from the food protection team are in my manor. I have sent someone to inform them."
Chen Qing asked Wang Huai to sit down and asked, "I don't understand the deployment of the puppet Qi army. How much do you know?"
"I have heard from some humble sources that the main force of the puppet Qi army is in Weinan, with a force of 100,000. The other tens of thousands of troops have been broken into pieces and distributed to various states. I heard that there are more troops stationed in Hehuang, with tens of thousands of people.
Mainly to prevent the local Tibetan nobles from rebelling."
It turned out that the main force of the puppet Qi army was at Dashan Pass. Only then did Chen Qing understand why the puppet Qi army did not become fishermen to provoke Ganquan Fort. They still focused on invading Hanzhong.
"How do the people in the city survive now?" Chen Qing changed the topic and asked.
Wang Huai sighed, "What can I live on, other than the beans and melons I planted before, and then I went to find wild fruits and vegetables outside the city to barely survive without starving to death? The puppet Qi army not only failed to help the people, but also cut them all in advance.
The corn grown by everyone was tried in every possible way to extort big families. Hundreds of big families were not spared, including my family. All the money and grain were extorted. We could only live half full every day, let alone other families, so everyone was looking forward to making a new plant.
The envoy will return."
Chen Qing nodded, "I will arrange for the army to provide porridge later and ensure that everyone can have rice porridge with noodles for dinner."
After hearing these words, Wang Huai could no longer control his emotions, covered his face and burst into tears.
...........
Chen Qing immediately ordered Yang Yuanqing and Hu Yanyun to set up fifteen porridge relief points in Chengji County, set up tents to cook porridge and help the people. The whole city responded immediately, and every household rushed to the street with pots and bowls, and every porridge relief point
There was a long queue in front.
The porridge relief lasted for three days, and finally the hunger of the people in Chengji County was alleviated. The city gradually became lively, shops reopened, wine shops were fragrant, restaurants, teahouses, and brothels were decorated with lights again, and the streets and alleys heard voices again.
The cheerful laughter of children.
That morning, Chen Qing summoned senior military and political officials to discuss organizing the people of the county to plant another season of autumn millet and other grains.
"I am considering mobilizing some grain from other counties in Qinzhou to Chengji County. Ganquanbao and Bashu will also transport grain to ensure that the people in the county have enough food before the autumn harvest. But no matter what, we must rush to plant a season of grain.
Otherwise, the new year will be sad."
At this time, Yan Jun, the leader of the soldiers, walked in and said a few words to Chen Qing. Chen Qing was startled, why did Liu Zan come here?
He smiled at everyone and said: "Everyone has experience and hopes to speak out enthusiastically and try to sort out a charter today. We will start implementing it tomorrow. I have something to do and I will go out for a while and I will be back soon."
Chen Qing got up and went out, and soon came to the inner hall. He saw Liu Zan walking out quickly, handed him a tube of Eagle Letter, and said seriously: "The situation in Hanzhong is critical, and all three of them are asking the general for help!"