Chen Qing took a small boat and rushed back to Baling County.
In the prefectural government office, Chen Qing met Li Gang, who had been waiting for him for a long time. The two sat down and Li Gang asked with a smile: "I'm curious, what's your secret to conquering Junshan in the first battle?"
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "To be honest with the Xuanfu envoy, the secret of Beizhi is just two words, 'intelligence!'. This is also the key to Beizhi's ability to predict the enemy first in the northwest."
"Tell me more specifically!"
"One of the main purposes of Beizhi in establishing authority in Huarong County was to hope that some of the rebel soldiers would escape back to their hometowns. It was indeed effective. Beizhi learned some important information from them. For example, Yang Yao spent half of this year in Changde Mansion.
, for example, when a large amount of supplies and soldiers went to Changde Mansion, Beizhi judged that Yang Yao was moving the center of rule from Junshan to Changde Mansion. Beizhi immediately sent scouts to Changde Mansion for surveillance and found that Yang Yao had built a palace in Dingkoudang.
The huge water village, with Wuling County behind it, has become Yang Yao's new home base."
"Then what?"
"Then Beizhi learned from a bandit soldier who escaped that there were only about ten thousand soldiers left on Junshan Island. Yang Yao was not on the island. Beizhi was waiting for Yang Yao to return to Junshan Island. News came from Changde.
When Yang Yao's fleet returned to Junshan, I knew the time had come to attack."
Li Gang nodded and praised: "He is indeed a victorious general who has experienced hundreds of battles. He is indeed unique. This experience is worth promoting. In addition, we have reached an exchange agreement."
Chen Qing laughed, "I did not massacre the surrendered soldiers. In fact, I did not fight the enemy at all. I lit the woods around Dazhai. Eight thousand of the 10,000 defenders came down the mountain to ask for surrender. I will kill them later."
Give it to the Xuanfu envoy,"
"There were no prisoners of war in the water war?"
"One thing is that there are only more than a hundred people, so it is not easy to catch them in the water. Moreover, this army is Yang Yao's escort. They are very loyal to Yang Yao and refuse to surrender. They want to overturn the Song army's ship after falling into the water. As a last resort, they
We can only shoot them all!"
Li Gang just asked casually. He also knew that it was difficult for Chen Qing not to kill the prisoners of war. It was impossible to expect him to be merciful in a fierce battle.
"Okay! I'm here this time to tell you important news. The Puppet Qi Kingdom launched a large-scale attack on Xiangyang. Unfortunately, the Song Army was defeated in both battles. Wang Jin, the defender of the Guanghua Army, was killed. The entire army was destroyed. Wudang County was destroyed.
After breaking through, Junzhou also fell. Now 30,000 puppet Qi troops are attacking Xiangyang. The situation is critical and the imperial court cannot send reinforcements. I can only concentrate our forces with Wang Yan to support Xiangyang."
Chen Qing quickly asked: "Do you need troops from humble positions to support you?"
Li Gang shook his head, "We currently still have 50,000 troops, which is more than enough to deal with the 30,000 puppet Qi troops. As long as Xiangyang is not lost, the situation will not worsen. You should continue to attack Yang Yao and don't give up halfway!"
After a pause, Li Gang said apologetically: "I have another piece of bad news to tell you. The government has issued a gold medal order to urgently mobilize the Yangtze River navy back to Runzhou."
"Why?"
"It seems that Jin soldiers appeared on the north bank of the Yangtze River. The imperial court was frightened and ordered the navy to return to Runzhou immediately."
Chen Qing was speechless. Whenever Jin Bing appeared on the north bank of the Yangtze River, he would be so frightened.
"But when the navy goes back, Yang Yao won't be able to attack."
"I know that if you keep these fifty warships and five thousand naval troops, there are still dozens of warships and thousands of naval troops on the other side of Poyang Lake. They will fill the vacancies. I will write to the court and explain the situation clearly.
.”
"Thank you so much, Ambassador Xuanfu!"
"There are also trophies. I want to tell you about it. I have heard that the trophies you got in the northwest were all distributed to the soldiers. It is said that you were impeached by Zhu Shengfei, right?"
Chen Qing nodded, and Li Gang smiled and said: "Although I am a civil servant, I also know that when this dynasty fought against Liao and Xixia, the spoils obtained were basically distributed to the fighting soldiers. This is a common practice, although the court stipulated spoils of war.
You have to hand it over, but in fact, no army has ever turned it over. Everyone follows the usual practice. The provision of handing over spoils of war is in name only. Everyone knows it, but why does Zhu Sheng insist on impeaching you?"
"I don't know what a humble job is!"
"Because Zhu Shengfei is the coach. If the court wants to hold you accountable, he will have to bear the blame. When he impeaches you, he wants to clear up the relationship first. In other words, he is not willing to bear this responsibility for you in vain."
Speaking of this, Li Gang smiled and said: "You are a smart man, do you understand what I am talking about?"
Chen Qing sighed, this was not talking about Zhu Shengfei, it was clearly talking about himself.
"One hundred thousand bolts of silk and fifty thousand dollars, is that enough?"
"I have quite a lot of troops, at least 200,000 bolts of silk and 80,000 guan of money."
"There is only one hundred thousand guan in total. Are you not satisfied with giving half of it to you?"
"I don't believe you didn't seize the gold and silver!"
"Sixty thousand guan of money and two hundred thousand bolts of silk, the most I can give you is this much."
Li Gang nodded, "Then it's settled. You keep the food to help the people, and hand over the prisoners of war and money and silk to me. In addition, all kinds of items related to Yang Yao's transgression are also handed over to me. He has a gold and jade bed."
, the imperial court asked for it by name."
Chen Qing thought to himself, 'Fortunately the golden chair was newly cast and the court didn't know about it yet!'
Li Gang left with satisfaction, but Chen Qing was secretly afraid. Who said that civil servants are thin-skinned, and they are thicker-skinned than anyone who wants trophies. Fortunately, Li Gang was not allowed to go to Junshan Island, otherwise it would have been terrible.
By the morning of the next day, the army and all the trophies had returned. Chen Qing immediately divided the money and silk into two, leaving half of it for Li Gang, and the other half as a reward to his soldiers. Suddenly the three armies cheered, five thousand sailors and three thousand
The Yuezhou Army was even more delighted. This was the first time they had received such a generous reward.
Chen Qing also ordered to distribute food to the people in the city. Each household was given five measures of rice, and the whole city immediately cheered. In this way, whether in the army or among the people, Chen Qing was like a god in their hearts.
Chen Qing immediately ordered the navy to escort the property and prisoners of war to Hanyang, where the official office of the Xuanfu envoy in Huguang was located.
...........
In the evening, seven or eight men in black came galloping on horseback from the south of Baling County. In the Dongting Lake area, people on horseback are very rare. Everyone on the road knew that they must be Song Army cavalry, so they gave way one after another. The men in black rushed their horses all the way.
Entered the county seat.
Chen Qing was discussing the next move with several generals in the military camp tent. At this time, a soldier reported outside the tent, "General Huyan is back!"
General Hu Yan is Hu Yanlei, the commander of the Second Scout Battalion. He is different from Zhao Xiaoyi's First Scout Battalion. They are mainly responsible for intelligence exploration in the enemy's city. There is also an internal affairs battalion commanded by Wang Hao, which is mainly responsible for arresting the enemy.
The army's spies were in the city.
Chen Qing was overjoyed, he was waiting for news from Hu Yanlei!
He quickly ordered: "Let him come in!"
After a moment, Hu Yanlei quickly walked into the big tent, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "For your humble position, please see the commander-in-chief!"
"What good news does it bring us?" Chen Qingxiao asked.
"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, the possibility I mentioned before has been successful."
"Are you talking about inciting rebellion against Liu Heng?"
"Exactly!"
Chen Qing took two steps with his hands behind his back and said to Hu Yanlei: "Tell everyone! Why was Liu Heng incited to rebel?"
Hu Yanlei saluted everyone and said: "This Liu Heng was the leader of the water thieves in Changde Mansion before. He had a concubine named Li Qingluo, who was a famous prostitute in Changde Mansion. Later, Liu Heng's power was annexed by Yang Yao. He was not the only one."
His concubine Li Qingluo was taken over by Zhong Zhiyi, the son of Zhong Xiang. After Zhong Ziyi died outside Baling City a few months ago, Liu Heng wanted to take his concubine back. Unexpectedly, this woman had long been favored by many people.
Yang Yao rewarded her to his brother Yang Qin. Liu Heng was so angry that he cursed Yang Yao after getting drunk. As a result, Yang Yao beat her with a hundred military sticks in public and took away half of his subordinates. He was despised.
Feeling that this person could be won over, he found an intermediary to test his attitude. Yesterday morning, he found the intermediary and expressed his willingness to surrender."
Zheng Ping frowned and said, "Isn't it a bit far-fetched to fall out with Yang Yao over a prostitute?"
"Reporting to Commander Zheng, this famous prostitute Li Qingluo is not the woman Liu Heng robbed. He spent two thousand gu to redeem her. She is the concubine that the matchmaker is marrying."
"How is Commander Yang?" Chen Qing asked Yang Yuanqing with a smile.
Yang Yuanqing thought for a while and said: "As Lao Zheng said, the woman was robbed. Although this Liu Heng was very angry, he might not betray Yang Yao. At most, he would hold a grudge. But the real reason that prompted this person to surrender was the Battle of Junshan. Of course
, the woman being robbed was the inducement, and the battle at Junshan was the main cause."
Chen Qing laughed and said, "Old Yang has the same idea as me. I wonder what Liu Heng's certificate of surrender is?"
Hu Yanlei took out a thick stack of drawings and handed them to Chen Qing, "This is the detailed drawing of the Dingkou Dangshui Village camp drawn by Liu Heng!"