Two days later, Chen Qing personally led eight thousand troops north to Deshun Prefecture.
Although the advantages and disadvantages of capturing Deshun Prefecture were mixed, everyone finally unanimously supported the capture of Deshun Prefecture, not because there were not many troops stationed in Deshun Prefecture and it was easy to capture, but because Deshun Prefecture was of great significance to Qinzhou.
Qinzhou's northern barrier, in order to ensure Qinzhou's security, they must capture Deshun Prefecture.
Deshun Prefecture is small, with an area only half that of Qin Prefecture. It is mainly mountainous and hilly. It is composed of six counties in total, including Zhiping County and Shuiluo County in the south, Weirong County and Tongbian County in the middle, and the easternmost part of Deshun Prefecture.
Longqian County in Pingliang Prefecture, and Longde County in the north.
Among the six counties, Longqian County in the east and Longde County in the north are of strategic significance. One of these two counties defends against the Jin soldiers and the puppet Qi army, and the other defends against the Xixia army. They are only sixty miles apart, so they can be the horns of each other.
echo each other.
In the southeast of Deshun Prefecture is the Longshan Mountain, which stretches for hundreds of miles, stretching from the Weishui River in Qinzhou to Longgan County. It acts like a natural barrier, preventing the enemy from entering Deshun Prefecture from the southeast.
After receiving supplies in Shuiluo County, Chen Qing's army continued to move north along the official road. This area was full of rolling mountains and hills. The cavalry had to go north along the official road. There were no other roads. Three days later, the army arrived at Longgan.
county.
The first scout to arrive in Longgan County was twenty men led by Dutou Wu Zhongnan, who had already entered the county to lurk.
Twenty miles away from the county seat, a Song Army scout disguised as a civilian came riding on a donkey. He was led to Chen Qing. The scout saluted and said: "This is to inform the capital, the puppet Qi army in Longqian County."
There are still a thousand people, and the commander is called He Zongshen."
"How is military discipline?"
"The military discipline is good and there is no disturbance to the people. This He Zongshen is from Longqian County. This army was originally the Deshun Prefecture Army."
Chen Qing pondered for a moment, found a flat stone, spread out the paper, wrote a letter, and handed it to the scout, "Let Wu Dutou find a way to deliver the letter to this He Zongshen within today!"
"Follow the order!"
The scout took the letter and returned.
Chen Qing did not rush to Longgan County, but let the soldiers rest on the spot.
Longqian County is a middle county with a city perimeter of sixteen miles. It is the prefecture of Deshun Prefecture. It is also the county with the largest population and the largest grain output in Deshun Prefecture. Like the northwest states, Longqian County was not destroyed by the Jin soldiers.
Controlled by several large families.
In fact, this has been a tradition since the Han and Tang dynasties. There were not many officials at the county level. There were only four people: the county magistrate, the county seat, the county captain, and the chief registrar. Generally, the county was governed by both the county magistrate and the gentry.
The He family is one of the three major families in Longqian County. He Zongshen belongs to the He family. During the Song Dynasty, he was the commander of the Prefecture Xiang Army. He surrendered to the puppet Qi army and continued to serve as the commander and was stationed in Deshun Prefecture.
He Zongshen was about forty years old, tall, with a beard and black face, and a powerful appearance. He was unwilling to surrender to the Jin people, but he did not want to leave the state, so he finally surrendered to the Qi army. Although the Qi state was a vassal of the Jin state, at least he was a Han
The political power has a decent face, and it will not disgrace the ancestors.
He Zongshen was quite troubled in the past two days. He received the third urging order from Shaanxi Economic and Strategic Envoy Li Cheng, asking him to escort last year's grain taxes and taxes to Jingzhao.
This made it very difficult for He Zongshen. You should know that Deshun Prefecture suffered a drought last year and grain production was reduced by 30%. The government arbitrarily halved the taxes, money and food collected, but even this halved tax, money and food was almost consumed by his army.
The warehouse is empty. What should he be escorted to Jingzhao?
However, the halving of their taxes has not been approved by the Qi court, and it seems that it is too late to make up for the formalities. Not only is He Zongshen distressed, but the government and gentry are even more distressed. They are worried that the final missing taxes will be allocated to the large gentry households.
In the state government office, He Zongshen, several officials and several wealthy family heads were discussing countermeasures.
He Zongshen sighed and said: "I heard that Gongzhou was captured by Chen Qing. Our Deshun Prefecture is too close to Ganquan Fort and also close to Chengji County. I guess Li Cheng was worried that the Song Army would occupy Deshun Prefecture, so he urged
Let’s transport the money and food away.”
Zhizhou Wang Tao sneered and said: "Since he is afraid, why doesn't he send more troops?"
"I heard that the Song army was attacking Ruzhou, and Li Cheng led an army of 50,000 to support it. There are not many troops in Guanzhong, so he definitely can't take care of it."
Everyone was surprised at the same time, "The Song army went on the Northern Expedition?"
He Zongshen nodded, "I heard that the expedition was from Xiangyang to the north."
At this moment, there was a rush of running sounds outside, and a soldier ran in with a letter, "Commander, your letter!"
"Who gave me the letter?"
He Zongshen frowned and snatched the letter away. He looked at the cover of the letter and was so frightened that he said "Ah!" and stood up.
Everyone saw that his expression changed drastically. He was rarely so nervous, so they all asked: "Zong Shen, who wrote you the letter?"
"Yes, Chen Qing!"
"Ah!" Everyone was stunned.
Liu Kun, the county magistrate, urged a little uncomfortably: "Read what is written in the letter?"
He Zongshen couldn't help but take another look at the envelope. On the envelope it was written that Duke Jing of the Great Song Dynasty, the military envoy of Xihe Road, the military commander of Chen Qingzhi, General He Zongshen, the military envoy of Shunzhou in De Shunzhou.
The writing was very honorable, and he actually called him the Military Envoy of Deshun Prefecture. He was just a commander, and the Military Envoy must at least be a commander before he could serve. He did not have this qualification yet, so he could not help but have some wild ideas. Could it be that Chen Qing wanted to call himself Deshun
State military envoy?
He Zongshen opened the letter, read it carefully, and said to everyone: "He said that the Xixia army is about to invade the south, and he hopes that we will fight side by side with him to resist the invasion of the Xixia army."
This is actually the dignified version of asking them to surrender. It is not to surrender, but to fight side by side against foreigners. But how can we fight side by side without surrender? In the end, it is still surrender.
He Zongshen's eldest brother He Zongshun was taken aback and asked anxiously: "Will the Xixia people invade?"
"Why not!"
Another family head was dissatisfied: "Didn't they capture Deshun Prefecture the year before last and force each of our 13 large families to pay 500 shi of food? You forgot, we were later forced to leave by the Jin soldiers and each family was forced to donate 300 shi."
Guanqian and two hundred shi of grain, how long does it take!"
Everyone expressed their opinion that the Xixia people did not touch the ordinary people who had no money and water, but only killed the big families. They wanted to eat them dry and drink them dry. The Xixia people must not be allowed to invade again.
He Zongshen sighed, "Chen Qing has led an army of 10,000 people. They are just outside the city. He said he did not want to kill the local soldiers and asked us to open the city and surrender and return to the Song Dynasty. What do you think?"
"Do you even need to ask? I have an army of ten thousand, how can you resist a thousand people? Go and open the city gate!" He Zongshun glared at his brother and said.
Everyone also urged He Zongshen to surrender. Chen Qing always used local gentry as officials in Gongzhou. They strongly agreed with this concept of rural people governing the countryside.
At this time, Wang Tao, the governor of the state, sighed and said: "Actually, I am also willing to return to the Song Dynasty, but my family is in Bianliang, and I cannot care whether they live or die. I hope General He will tell Chen Dutong that I am willing to cooperate with him in handing over state affairs."
, please let him go."
He Zongshen nodded, "I'll go see Chen Dutong and vouch for Zhizhou!"
Wang Tao is from Bianliang. He was a Jinshi in the fourth year of Xuanhe. He has been an official in Deshun Prefecture. He is an honest official. He proposed to halve the tax without authorization and is highly respected by the local wealthy people.
He Zongshen got up and left the government office, ordered the city gates to be opened, and personally led a thousand troops out of the city to surrender...
Half an hour later, He Zongshen accompanied Chen Qing's army into Longgan County.
"Chen Dutong, although he is a rough man in his humble position, he also respects those civil servants who are honest and do practical things for the people. Wang Zhizhou has been an official in Deshun Prefecture for ten years, and all the people love him. Although he is a puppet of the Qi court
Official, but I beg Chen Dutong to forgive him and let him return to Bianliang!"
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said, "Just now you said that the taxes in Deshun Prefecture were halved without permission last year. Was it his decision?"
"Exactly, originally he meant that the drought would be completely exempted, but if it were completely exempted, our army would have no supplies, so we would only collect half of the tax. Li Cheng is still forcing us to transport money and food to Jingzhao. How can we have money and food?