Chapter three hundred and fifteen returning to the teacher
In the Jianglingcheng military camp, a sergeant entered the military camp and trotted all the way to a large tent in the left camp. The sergeant shouted loudly: "Report, there are important discoveries!"
"Come in!"
The sergeant opened the curtain and walked in. The lights were bright inside, and several Song army generals were standing in front of the table discussing something in a low voice.
This large tent is the main tent of the Internal Affairs Battalion. The Internal Affairs Battalion is also called the Third Scout Battalion. It is subordinate to the commander-in-chief Chen Qing and is responsible for finding and arresting enemy spies. The commander is Wang Hao.
At this time, Wang Hao was standing in front of the table, staring at the map of Jiangling City on the table. He and several deputies were exploring the hiding places of enemy spies.
They were under great pressure. Chen Qing asked them to find the enemy spies in Jiangling City and eliminate them within three days.
It was already the second night, and they had found a lot of clues, but these clues were quite messy and lacked a clear direction, which really bothered them.
They didn't pay much attention to the sergeants who walked into the tent. All kinds of clues were reported by the sergeants at any time. This might be another clue.
"What clue?" Wang Hao raised his head and asked.
"A beggar in the jurisdiction of Beizhong reported that there was an old Shunchang teahouse and he felt something strange."
Wang Hao divided Jiangling City into fifty areas, assigning five soldiers to each area to mobilize the beggars and scoundrels in the area to search for various abnormal clues.
"What's abnormal?" Wang Hao asked again.
"It has too many waiters, more than a dozen of them, and there are no women in the teahouse."
Wang Hao's heart moved slightly. Generally, teahouses only have three to four waiters. Larger teahouses will have more waiters, but there are only seven or eight people at most. Moreover, the teahouse must have a good-looking tea girl who is responsible for ordering tea. There is no need for men to order tea.
of.
How can a teahouse with more than a dozen people be profitable, and there are no women in it, which is really strange.
Wang Hao asked again: "Other than that, is there anything else suspicious?"
“And the teahouse has guys who go out of town every day!”
Wang Hao finally felt that this clue was somewhat reliable. He immediately stood up and said: "Gather all the brothers, I will apply for the army!"
Half an hour later, Wang Hao led fifty internal affairs battalion sergeants and five hundred soldiers to surround the old Shunchang Tea House.
Wang Hao gave an order, and the soldiers kicked open the door and rushed in. Seeing that they were exposed, the men rushed out with swords, but they were no match for the Song army. In just a moment, everyone was knocked down and tied up.
The leader, Wang Guan, was also brought up with his back tied behind his back. He said coldly: "Don't expect me to say anything, kill or chop him as you please!"
After speaking, he closed his eyes and said nothing.
Wang Hao waved his hand and asked people to take him away.
He then said to several of his men: "Find five people who don't want to die and tell them whoever tells them where the pigeon letter is can be let go home and interrogated alone."
The men hurried away, and after a while they came forward and said: "Reporting to the commander, all five of them have confessed that the carrier pigeon is outside the city, and they are willing to lead the way. They can set off at any time!"
Wang Hao nodded, "Inform the brothers to assemble. We will go now and take away both the people and the carrier pigeons. No one can escape!"
Three days after crossing the Yangtze River, under the cover of darkness, the five thousand cavalry returned to the north bank of the Yangtze River in large ships. They did not enter the city, but were deployed more than ten miles outside the West City.
But Chen Qing returned to Jiangling City under the escort of his own soldiers, and the 5,000 cavalry were handed over to Liu Cui and Liu Qiong. Liu Cui had no problem leading the cavalry, but he lacked experience in defending the city, especially the 6,000 new soldiers.
Chen Qing had ordered Niu Gao to rush back as quickly as possible, but he didn't know if he could get to Jiangling City before the puppet Qi army launched a large-scale attack on Jiangling City.
On the top of the city, Chen Qing looked north with his hands behind his hands. He had already understood Wan Yanchang's layout. Wan Yanchang's next step must be to attack Yingzhou in a large scale, but their target was not Yingzhou, but Li Gang's 30,000 troops.
If Li Gang cannot recapture Hanyang County before the enemy army marches south to Hanyang, then his army will be in danger. It will face a serious situation of being attacked from both sides, and it is very likely that the entire army will be destroyed as a result.
Chen Qing also saw this danger, so he ordered Zheng Ping to recapture Jiangxia, and then use warships to meet Li Gang's main force to cross the river at any time.
The puppet Qi army will definitely attack Jiangling City, but the only uncertainty is when the opponent will divide its troops and come to Jiangling. Whether it will start dividing its troops from Changshou County or after arriving in Hanyang, it is crucial to clarify this point.
At noon the next day, Chen Qing received a message from Hanyang. Li Gang, with the help of the people in the city, cooperated inside and outside to capture Hanyang City. The 10,000 puppet Qi troops stationed in Hanyang fled in panic, but the Song army did not pursue them, but reoccupied them.
They arrived in Hanyang County and began to transport supplies from Cangcheng to prepare for the war.
This news made Chen Qing breathe a long sigh of relief. God bless Song Jun. Li Gang was not as bad as he thought. He stood firm at the most dangerous moment.
Chen Qing then received the second news that Kong Yanzhou led 20,000 troops from Yingzhou to attack Jiangling Mansion.
This news also gave Chen Qing a big blow.
The main force of the Puppet Qi Army, which diverted 20,000 troops, probably only had 30,000 to 40,000 troops left. This small number of troops could not capture Hanyang, which shows that they actually counted the 20,000 Puppet Qi Army attacking Yuezhou as part of the force to attack Hanyang.
Then Zhang Xiao's judgment is correct. Whether the puppet Qi army attacks Jiangxia or Baling, it is a false attack. Their real goal is to capture Hanyang. Before capturing Hanyang and Jiangling, they will not waste their limited resources on the outside.
troops.
Chen Qing immediately ordered the recruitment of civil servants from all over the city to help defend the city. Officials from the Jiangling Prefecture and County Government went all out to mobilize the people to participate in the civil servants. The people signed up extremely enthusiastically. In just one afternoon, more than 20,000 people signed up.
Participate in helping to defend the city.
At dusk, Niu Gao and a dozen soldiers rode back to Jiangling City. This made Chen Qing happy and appointed Niu Gao as deputy general to organize the civilian husbands to defend the city.
Niu Gao didn't care that he was tired from the journey and didn't rest. He immediately jumped into the organizational training of the militia soldiers with enthusiasm.
This is what Chen Qing admires most about Niu Gao. Like an old scalper, he is hardworking, loyal, patient, has no complaints, and has outstanding abilities.
On the main campus of the military camp, 20,000 defensive civilians were divided into ten square formations, wearing leather armor and holding swords and short spears. They trained in sword and spear skills under the leadership of dozens of generals. This is very important, although it is not
They need to be like regular soldiers, but at least they need to have a sense of how to fight.
Chen Qing was riding a horse outside the university to watch the training, and Niu Gao was accompanying him. He took this opportunity to report Jiang Xia's intelligence to Chen Qing.
"Jiangxia was a bit beyond our expectations, Lao Zheng and I. We thought there would be a tough battle to siege the city, and we were worried about the lack of siege weapons. Unexpectedly, we only used a battering ram to break open the city gate. Basically, there was no
Encountered resistance.”
"Where are Jiangxia's defenders?" Chen Qingxiao asked.
"That's the problem. After we entered the city, we discovered that there were less than a thousand soldiers defending the city. The battle flags on the city were all false. It was thought that there were thousands of people, but in fact there were only a few dozen. The battle flags were
Tied to wooden stakes, it looks like someone is holding it up."
"This shows that they have no plan to occupy Ezhou."
"Exactly! Lao Zheng and I also believe that whether the puppet Qi army attacks Jiangxia or launches a mighty attack on Baling County, it is all a bluff. The purpose is to put pressure on the capital commander and let him lead his army back to Baling.
county."
"You have the right vision, and you will never deviate from it. No matter how much the puppet Qi army bluffs, their target is still Jingxiang, or Hanyang and Jiangling to be precise. The puppet Qi army that threatened Baling County has achieved its goal, and they will soon
Cross the river and go north, attacking Hanyang from the direction of Fuzhou."
Niu Gao was a little worried and said: "Du Tong, the other side has more than a hundred warships and a large number of troops. I am very worried that they will pose a threat to our warships."
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "I told Lao Zheng that if you can't fight, just run away. It won't be embarrassing. Once we have trained the navy, we will take care of them."
Niu Gao scratched his head and said with a smile: "You are right, if you can't beat us, just run away. They can't catch up with our cars and boats anyway."
At this time, a soldier rushed over, clasped his fists and reported: "Several commanders, please come to the city to report something important!"
Chen Qing nodded and smiled at Niu Gao: "If we need to speed up the training of bows and arrows, I estimate that the puppet Qi army will kill them tonight and tomorrow morning."
Niu Gao agreed and strode towards the school grounds. Chen Qing also turned his horse and entered the city.