At noon the next day, the cavalry led by Chen Qing arrived in Changlin County, but to his surprise, the tens of thousands of puppet Qi troops besieging Changlin County had already retreated.
Li Gang went out of the city to greet him personally. Chen Qing stepped forward and bowed and said, "I'm late for my humble post. Please keep the envoy Xuanfu waiting!"
Li Gang sighed, "I am very lucky now that General Chen is here in Huguang, otherwise Huguang would be really in danger this time."
"Xuanfu has been rewarded!"
Li Gang ordered the city gates to be opened wide and personally accompanied Chen Qing's army into Changlin County.
Arriving at the military camp, Li Gang ordered Sima to arrange for 10,000 troops to stay there so that they could feed the war horses.
At this time, Li Gang discovered that Chen Qing's cavalry actually carried thousands of sets of armors from the puppet Qi army. He chuckled and said, "I believe Chen Duyong must have good news to tell me!"
"There is indeed good news. The 8,000 puppet Qi troops in Yiling were completely wiped out by the humble soldiers in the middle of the night the day before yesterday."
Li Gang was overjoyed. This was their first big victory against the puppet Qi army. It was so difficult for them, but it was so easy for Chen Qing. Li Gang was happy, but also a little confused.
"Chen Dutong, why can't my army destroy the enemy so easily?"
Chen Qing thought for a while and said: "The cavalry plays a key role here. For example, in this puppet Qi army, we are about fifty miles away from them. In this way, the spies sent by the other side cannot detect our existence. If it is ordinary infantry, running fifty miles will still be impossible."
It is difficult to maintain sufficient physical strength. The cavalry is different. It can run fifty miles in half an hour, and then surprises the opponent in the middle of the night, killing the opponent by surprise. Secondly, Xuanfu's army has been targeted by the opponent early.
If you are careful, the other side will send people to keep an eye on them every time they mobilize their troops, so you can guess the intentions of the Xuanfu Envoy, so it will be difficult to attack the other side."
Li Gang nodded, "I understand what you mean. There must be an army that is independent of the main force. The so-called combination of good and strange will be effective."
"That's exactly what I mean. In the northwest, Wu Dutong arranged for his subordinates to stay outside the Dashan Pass, appear and disappear, and constantly harass and attack the enemy troops, making the Jin soldiers unable to defend themselves."
"Very good. It seems that I have to let Chen Dutong's army continue to be on the periphery and use the high speed and long-distance running of the cavalry to continuously attack the enemy."
"In this way, the Xuanfu envoys can rely on the city as soon as possible. In fact, the Xuanfu envoys are the bait, and the humble position is the striking force."
Li Gang stroked his beard and said, "Let me think about it again."
"There is another thing. I may have to apologize to the Xuanfu envoy because I am humble."
Li Gang was startled, "What's the matter?"
"It's about Yang Yao. The humble post should be given to the Xuanfu envoy, but the humble post turned out to be..."
Li Gang smiled and waved his hand, "I am not Zhu Shengfei, and I am not that narrow-minded. Besides, when you captured Yang Yao, I had already led my army to leave Hanyang. Even if you sent it to Hanyang, no one would accept it. I thought you knew that I was not here.
Hanyang, then sent directly to Lin'an."
"I was just afraid of long nights and dreams, so I sent him directly to Lin'an. I really had no other ideas, but I felt something was wrong afterward."
Li Gang said calmly: "You don't need to explain. I know you are used to it and don't like to be suppressed by others. But Chen Dutong, this habit is not good and can easily disgust your boss. Most of Zhu Shengfei's hatred for you stems from this.
"
"Thank you very much, Ambassador Xuanfu, for your teachings!"
Li Gang narrowed his eyes and said: "Chen Dutong, why don't we make another deal! I know you don't like to be suppressed by others, and you don't like to be commanded by civilian officials. You can make independent judgments and send troops independently. I won't interfere with you, but I have
condition."
Chen Qing laughed twice and said, "How embarrassing!"
"Stop talking nonsense. Although I am not Zhu Shengfei, I am definitely not Zhang Jun. I will completely delegate power to my subordinates. Otherwise, I will sit in Hanyang and will not personally lead the army to Changlin County. I promise you that I will only consider the overall situation, and there are
Conditions, if you can't do it, you can't ask me to delegate power."
"Xuanfu, please tell me the conditions!"
"There are four conditions. First, your army is not allowed to harass the people, and you are not allowed to use the excuse of catching spies to plunder large landlords; second, no matter which city you capture, the local officials must be dealt with by me;
Third, I only delegated the power of war to you, but I did not give you the power of post-war disposal."
"Xuanfu Envoy is actually talking about the disposal of prisoners of war and the captured trophies, right?"
Li Gang nodded, "As long as you understand, I will arrange and distribute all the spoils. I will give you what should be given to you."
Chen Qing pondered for a moment, "I promised to make an exception, but can I make an exception for the forage?"
Li Gang smiled and said: "Only fodder and black beans."
"What about the fourth condition of the Xuanfu envoy?"
Li Gang glared at Chen Qing fiercely and said: "I told you before that you are not allowed to issue a killing order. You must change it to surrender without killing. But the night before yesterday, when you attacked the puppet Qi army in Yiling, you still issued an order.
A killing order, right? I didn’t see a single prisoner of war.”
Chen Qing was silent for a moment and said: "I am not a cruel person. There is a reason why I issued the killing order the night before. I hope the Xuanfu Envoy can understand."
"Are you going to avenge Wang Yan?"
Chen Qing nodded slowly, with uncontrollable hatred in his eyes, "There were two armies surrounding Wang Yan. One was the puppet Qi army in Yiling, and the other was Kong Yanzhou's army. Kong Yanzhou pretended to retreat from Xiangyang.
He deceived Wang Yan's trust and ended up sneaking a surprise attack on Wang Yan's five thousand troops in the middle of the night. Wang Yan was shot in the vital part of the left chest by an arrow from Kong Yanzhou.
Not only that, Kong Yanzhou also beheaded all the 1,000 Jiangling soldiers he captured. He also dug up Wang Yan's body and asked the leader to take credit from the Jin soldiers. I didn't know this at first, and I didn't get the real information until I interrogated the puppet Qi army.
."
After a pause, Chen Qing continued: "I have always regarded Wang Yan as my teacher and father. I swore yesterday morning that I would kill Kong Yanzhou and his army. If the Xuanfu envoy did not agree, I would rather give up the right to fight independently.
."
Li Gang took two steps with his hands behind his back, nodded and said: "Only Kong Yanzhou and his men are guilty, and the crime is not as bad as their family members!"
"Can!"
"Then let's make an agreement. Except for Kong Yanzhou's ministry, you are not allowed to issue a killing order. There are three other conditions. If you dare not abide by your promise, even if the Xuanfu envoy doesn't do it, I will never do it.
Spare you!"
Chen Qing nodded silently, "It's a deal!"
...........
There are two cities in Hanyang, one is Hanyang County, and the other is Hanyang Cangcheng. Hanyang Cangcheng was built after Li Gang took office and was completed only two months ago. The perimeter of Cangcheng is twelve miles, the city is three feet high, and the city wall
It is tall and strong. There is only one water gate in the whole city. Ships first arrive at the Han River, and then sail into the city through the one-mile-long Cao River from the Han River. The largest cargo ship can pass three thousand stone.
More than two hundred warehouses have been built in Cangcheng, and most of them are full. They have everything from money and grain to soldiers and armor, from medicinal materials to fire oil and gunpowder.
This is the logistics center of the entire Huguang Song Army. When Li Gang led his army to march westward, he only left two thousand troops to guard Cangcheng. Later, he also felt that it was inappropriate and sent people to Yingzhou and ordered Kong Yanzhou, the governor of Yingzhou, to divide some of them.
Send troops to assist in the defense of Hanyangcang City.
However, Li Gang did not expect that Kong Yanzhou surrendered to the puppet Qi army. He immediately sent an army to Hanyang, but was intercepted by the enemy shortly after and returned to Changlin County.
Only then did Li Gang realize that Hanyang City was in extreme danger.
But what Li Gang didn't expect was that Chen Qing also sent an army on more than a hundred warships to Hanyang for support.
In fact, Zhang Ying, the governor of Ezhou, had been instructed by Chen Qing to lead a thousand local state soldiers to Hanyang and defend Hanyang County. You must know that Hanyang County is the seat of Xuanfu's Siguan Yamen. If Hanyang County is captured and the rebel army massacres Hanyang,
The consequences are equally unimaginable.
The huge fleet commanded by Zheng Ping arrived in Hanyang. The sentry ship that arrived first came to report that some small boats of unknown origin were found on the Han River, which looked like enemy exploration ships, but the main force of the enemy fleet was not found.
Zheng Ping immediately invited Niu Gao and the navy commander Li Feng to discuss the matter.
Niu Gao looked at the map and suggested: "I think we should hide in Jiangxia first. Once the enemy arrives, when they are about to attack Cangcheng, we will attack their ships, cut off their retreat, and annihilate them all on the river."
superior."
Li Feng nodded, "This is a good idea. It's only about ten miles from Jiangxia to Cangcheng. The cars and ships are fast and can quickly get to the north and cut off their retreat. The warships attack from the south. The two fleets will attack from the north and south. There will inevitably be a
No ship can escape."
Zheng Ping thought for a while and said: "Two thousand crossbowmen are also deployed on the land next to Hanyang Cangcheng to prevent them from abandoning their ships and going ashore!"
Niu Gao was a little worried and said: "But if the opponent's army is larger and a forced breakthrough is made, it may cause heavy casualties to the crossbowmen!"
"It's okay! If we get to that point, the crossbowmen can retreat to Hanyang County!"
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[Sorry, there is something going on at home. Today there are only two updates in the morning and evening, but no one at noon. Tomorrow there will be three updates as normal]
