In the afternoon, Yan Jun hurried over with Wang Shu, the magistrate of Jianli County.
Of course Chen Qing would not decide his next move just by listening to a few words from the restaurant owner.
By this time, Chen Qing was well-known throughout the country, and even the county magistrate of a small place like Jianli County had heard of Chen Qing's reputation.
"Wang Shu, the magistrate of Li County, the official supervisor, meets with General Chen!"
"You're welcome, Magistrate Wang, please take a seat!"
Chen Qing asked the magistrate to sit down. Soon, Yu Lian and Yu Ying came in and served them tea.
Wang Shu looked at the twin sisters in surprise. Why did they look exactly the same?
Chen Qing smiled and said: "I asked Magistrate Wang to come here because I have something to ask!"
"General, feel free to ask, but I am humble enough to answer all questions!"
"The first thing is about the situation in Yuezhou. I heard that Yang Yao led tens of thousands of people to besiege Baling County. Is it true?"
"The siege happened last month. Since the county seat was not captured, Yang Yao instead besieged Baling County. It has been a month since the siege without attacking. They wanted to wait for the city to run out of food, so as to seize the Xuanfu envoys in the city.
Li Gang and Wang Zhizhou."
That's more or less the same. How is it possible to keep attacking? It's more logical to besiege and not attack. It's just that Yang Yao has become so smart and knows how to attack the heart first.
Chen Qing put aside the siege for the time being and asked again: "Is the Yangtze River waterway safe from Jianli County to the south?"
Wang Shu shook his head, "There is no safety at all. It is basically controlled by Yang Yao's navy. Every ship must be inspected. If it is a merchant ship, half of the cargo will be confiscated. This forces many cargo owners to take the land route and bypass the Dongting Lake section.
"
"Where is our passenger ship? Do we need to check it too?" Chen Qing asked again.
"Passenger ships are generally taxed, five hundred dan for five guan, and two thousand dan for twenty guan. In fact, it's just a collection of money. I'm afraid that the female family members will be favored by them, like the general's two little maids. They must have passed it.
I can’t pass this level.”
Chen Qing stood up and cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, Magistrate Wang, for your advice!"
Chen Qing asked the county magistrate because he had experience. Last year, Yang Yao was not strong, but he was already very rampant. This year, he defeated the officers and soldiers three times, and it would only become more rampant. He knew what he should do.
With the reminder from the county magistrate, Chen Qing naturally did not let the passenger and horse boats continue to set off. Instead, he temporarily left the two young ladies and Yang Liu in Jianli County and asked Yan Jun to lead 20 soldiers to protect them.
Chen Qingze led eighty soldiers to put on armor, and took out the horses from the horse boat. Everyone got on their horses and headed to Yuezhou by land.
...........
Baling County is today's Yueyang. Decades ago, Fan Zhongyan once wrote here the famous saying "worry before the world's worries".
But at this time, Baling County encountered an unprecedented crisis. Thirty thousand Dongting water thieves surrounded the Baling city gate from four directions. However, there were only a few thousand officers and soldiers in the city, and there were tens of thousands of civilians. Once the city was occupied
If it is breached, the people of the whole city will face a tragic catastrophe.
On the city wall, Li Gang, the governor of Huguang, was worried. He was only in his early fifties, but his hair was all white. The shame of Jingkang became a big mountain weighing on him, making him breathless.
Although the Jin soldiers' second attack on Bianliang had nothing to do with him, after all, he was the prime minister of Jingkang. The second emperor was kidnapped and the court was destroyed. He couldn't pass the test in his heart.
Li Gang no longer hoped that the Song army could regain Bianliang and welcome back the Second Emperor, but the reality was so cruel, and this dream had become so far out of reach.
Li Gang looked at the vast waves in the distance and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
At this time, Zhizhou Wang Yan walked over quickly and said: "Xuanfu Envoy, the food has been rearranged, please take a look!"
Baling County has been besieged for a month, and the imperial reinforcements don't know when they will arrive?
The army was about to run out of food. With no choice but to do so, Li Gang decided to implement a food rationing system, concentrating all the county's food in the hands of the government to ensure the minimum survival food for every commoner and the minimum food guarantee for every soldier.
"How long can we last after redistribution?"
"Each soldier can only be given half a catty per day, and the common people can only be given two taels. It is estimated that they can last for half a month."
Li Gang was shocked, "Only half a month?"
Wang Yan sighed and said: "There is no way. The grain transport fleet was hijacked by the enemy, and the army's food has long been exhausted. We have been getting food from the private sector, and now the food from the private sector is almost gone."
Li Gang was silent. Their third battle with Yang Yao's army failed because the logistics camp was attacked and hundreds of large ships loaded with food were robbed. Tens of thousands of troops retreated to Baling County without any food. One month later,
, they basically raided all the merchants in Baling County for food, so they could barely maintain food for the army.
Yang Yao also saw this, so he adopted a siege strategy and forced himself out of the city to surrender.
The dignified Xuanfu envoy surrendered to the thieves. He would rather kill himself than take that step and cause the court to suffer great humiliation.
Li Gang sighed slightly, "Let's see when the reinforcements will arrive?"
He turned around and walked heavily into the city, his back already a little stooped.
.........
It only took Chen Qing one day and one night to lead eighty of his men on horseback to Baling County, Yuezhou. The villages around Baling County were deserted, and traces of being beaten, smashed, and burned could be seen everywhere.
Chen Qing led everyone into a village. He seemed to see lights in the village in the distance. It was a small village, with only more than a hundred households.
At this time, Chen Qing saw that there was indeed a looming light in the house on the far west side of the village.
"Go and see who he is?"
The two men got off their horses and galloped away.
Not long after, two subordinates ran over and said, "To report to the commander, that is a mansion of a wealthy family. There are more than a dozen thieves digging in the yard. They may think there is treasure buried underneath!"
I was just about to catch some thieves and ask about the situation, but unexpectedly they were sent to my door.
Chen Qing ordered the deputy head Zhuang Quan: "Go and catch them all, be careful not to let any fish slip through the net!"
"Follow the order!"
Zhuang Quan waved his hand and led dozens of soldiers to the lighted place. Soon, several screams were heard from there, and then the lights went out and there was silence.
In just one cup of tea, Zhuang Quan led his men to capture seven or eight thieves and killed the others.
The thieves knelt on the ground and kowtowed to beg for mercy. Zhuang Quan whispered: "There were two women in the room, both naked. They had just died. They probably raped them to death.
Chen Qing nodded and asked one of the leading bandits: "How many bandits are there in your army surrounding Baling County?"
The bandit leader said tremblingly: "There are about 20,000 people, falsely claiming to be 30,000 people."
"Is the leader Yang Yao?"
"The king is in the water stronghold, and the general who is besieging Baling County is Zhong Ziyi, the son of Prime Minister Zhong."
"In front of which city gate is his tent?"
"At the South City Gate!"
"how many people?"
"I really don't know, I guess there are about five to six thousand people."
Chen Qing winked at Zhuang Quan and ordered: "Take them down and question them separately. I want to know the password tonight!"
The thieves were taken down, and after a while they were questioned clearly. Zhuang Quan came back and reported: "The commander's guess is good. They are indeed a peripheral patrol sentry, responsible for the peripheral patrol in the southwest corner. The password tonight is 'Dragon King comes out of the water!'
"
Chen Qing nodded, "They took care of it!"
The soldiers wielded their swords together and chopped up all eight thieves.
Chen Qingdang immediately ordered: "Go to the south gate!"
He led eighty of his men and galloped towards the south city gate from the southwest corner...
The Dongting Water Bandits set up four camps in total, located in front of the four city gates in the east, west, south and north. Among them, the military camp at the south gate was the largest and surrounded by barracks.
The patrol soldiers in the southwest corner were all killed, and a defensive loophole appeared. Chen Qing led his men to use this loophole to enter the defensive circle. Not long after, he led his men to appear 300 steps away from the South Camp.
It doesn't matter if they are outside the camp. The other party has not built a sentry tower at all, only a few sentries standing in front of the camp gate.
Chen Qing fought against the Jin soldiers, the Xixia army, and the Puppet Qi army in the northwest. He had seen many well-defended camps, but this was the first time he saw the bandits' camp. It was completely unorganized. They probably had just arrived.
Once you get the camp, you don't know how to defend it, so it's full of loopholes.
As long as they kill the soldiers standing guard in front of the camp gate, they can enter the camp in a dignified manner.
Everyone followed Chen Qing on horseback and approached the camp gate. The sentry spotted them and asked sternly: "Password!"
"The Dragon King comes out of the water!" Chen Qing replied calmly.
There was no problem with the password, so the sentry asked again: "Who are you and what are you doing here?"