In the afternoon, Lu Yihao returned to the mansion. As soon as he returned to the mansion, his eldest son Lu Jin hurriedly came forward and said: "Father, the third uncle is here!"
"Where are the people?"
"In my father's study outside!"
Lu Yihao nodded, "Ask him to wait a moment, I'll change clothes and go over."
"Father, Wei'er has a letter from home."
The family letter from the second grandson Lu Wei was naturally delivered from Chengdu through his in-law Li Jong. In fact, it was a way for Chen Qing and Lu Yihao to contact each other.
Lu Yihao became energetic and asked quickly: "Where is the letter?"
Lu Jin took out the letter and handed it to his father. It was a letter from his in-law Li Jong, but at the back was a pigeon letter from Lu Wei.
Lu Yihao took the letter and said: "Go and settle your third uncle, I will come right away."
Lu Jin's third uncle is Lu Yihao's third brother Lu Qingshan. He has outstanding political achievements and was transferred from Fuzhou to Suzhou last year to serve as magistrate.
Lu Yihao changed into a comfortable gown and went to the outer study room. Lu Qingshan was drinking tea. When he saw his brother coming in, he quickly stood up and saluted, "Brother, you are in good health!"
"I'm fine. When did the third brother come to An?"
"I just arrived at noon today. I have a few important approval documents to urge the court, so I will go to Lin'an."
Lu Yihao waved his hand for him to sit down, and a maid came in to serve tea.
Lu Yihao took a sip of tea and said: "Those approval documents of yours should be stuck with Qin Xianggong. I will urge Qin Xianggong for you later. It's not a big problem."
"Thank you, brother!"
Lu Qingshan whispered again: "There is another important news. I heard that Sun Xiu defeated a hundred thousand puppet Qi troops in Qinzhou, and now Sun Xiu has led an army to send troops to Shaanxi Road."
Lu Yihao's eyelids twitched suddenly and he asked urgently: "Who did you hear this news from?"
"My little brother heard about it from a tea merchant who came from Guanzhong. He said that Chen Qing's army was attacking Qingzhou and the front line around the state."
Lu Yihao couldn't sit still, and quickly took out a roll of Shaanxi Road transfer map from the bookcase, slowly unfolded it and looked at it carefully. The route was very obvious. Chen Qing first attacked the northern part of Shaanxi Road, and then attacked Guanzhong from the south.
Only now did he understand that Chen Qing captured Pingliang Mansion last year in preparation for attacking Shaanxi Road this year.
Lu Yihao nodded, "I know about this matter. Third brother must not publicize this matter in the court."
"Don't worry, brother, I am sensible and will never leak it. In fact, the reason why I came to An'an this time is to tell my brother about this. I don't even dare to write a letter because I am afraid that the news will be leaked."
"You did the right thing. Now there is no news from the imperial court and Chen Qing. A few days ago, Zhu Shengfei said that the Jin soldiers would join forces with Xixia to attack Xihe Road and that Xihe Road would be difficult to protect. Now it seems that Zhu Shengfei is just talking nonsense."
Lu Qingshan was a little worried and said: "I also heard news today that my eldest brother may be resigning as prime minister. Is it true?"
"This statement has always been there, and it is correct. The Yushitai has been collecting evidence of my crime since last year. Even the dock I built near the river was impeached for usurping public land. Fortunately, I have the approval from Lin'an Prefecture, otherwise I would really say
Not clear."
"Is it because of Chen Qing?" Lu Qingshan asked again.
Lu Yihao nodded, "It has something to do with him. The official family is obviously venting their anger on me."
Lu Qingshan frowned and said: "I'm a little confused. What is the relationship between Chen Qing and the imperial court now? Is it a breakup, or is it to support the army and stand on its own feet?"
Lu Yihao smiled bitterly, "No one can tell clearly. Now that contact has been broken, the court knows nothing about the situation on Xihe Road. However, because of the death of the supervisor Wang Mian, the officials were extremely angry with Chen Qing and determined to remove him.
It's just that Chen Qing ignored his edict at all, so that the officials had already regarded Chen Qing as a traitor, but they just didn't make it public. Now Chen Qing has become a taboo in the court, and no one dares to mention him. Today, when we discuss sending troops to Jianghuai, no one mentions him.
To the matter of sending troops to Shaanxi Road.
Lu Qingshan suddenly realized, "No wonder! Today at Du Branch, an official mentioned that last year's tax statistics were incomplete and missing Xihe Road. As a result, he was scolded by Jia Du Branch. I was still confused. This official did not commit the crime.
What a mistake! It turned out to be Xihe Road."
"That's it. Xihe Road has been selectively forgotten by the imperial court. Officials and generals have been relegated to another list by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Privy Council. Now, except for some discussion among the people, there is no talk about it in the imperial court."
Lu Qingshan suddenly felt worried and said: "If Yushitai is looking for excuses for the elder brother, the elder brother will have to worry about the second brother."
The second child refers to his second brother Lu Datong, who is now the general magistrate of Yuanzhou. Lu Yihao was startled, "What's going on over there in Datong?"
"I heard that the reputation of the second brother's children is not very good, especially Lu Jiao, who hangs out with a group of bad friends and relies on his father's power to cause trouble outside and bully the good. I heard about it in Fuzhou last year, which shows his reputation.
The badness."
Lu Yihao said angrily: "I will write a letter to Datong right now. If you don't strictly restrain your children, sooner or later it will cause big trouble!"
.........
Chen Qing's 100,000-strong army marched eastward from Pingliang Prefecture. He divided his troops into two groups, one with 20,000 troops heading northeast, led by Yang Zaixing and Liu Qiong. They swept across Zhenrong Prefecture, Huanqing Prefecture, Qingyang Prefecture, Bao'an Prefecture, and Yanzhou.
Zhou and Suizhou.
Except for Yanzhou, these six state capitals basically have no garrison. The northern part was originally occupied by the Xixia people, but the civil war broke out in Xixia, and all the garrison troops were withdrawn from the country, resulting in a blank area for garrisoning.
In this area, only Yanzhou had a garrison of 3,000 troops to protect the kerosene production areas, but for the 20,000 Song troops, it was almost like hitting an egg with a stone.
The main force of the other group of 70,000 people, led by Chen Qing himself, entered Yuanzhou from Pingliang Prefecture, continued to march eastward, attacked Ningzhou, Fangzhou and Yanzhou, and would join the Northern Route Army in Luojiao County, Yanzhou.
Although there are no troops stationed on the northern line, there are troops stationed in the central states of Shaanxi Road, especially in the central county of Fangzhou, where five thousand troops are stationed.
Chen Qing led an army of 70,000 troops all the way with unstoppable momentum. The garrisons in Yuanzhou and Ningzhou fell into the wind. In the afternoon, the army passed through the Huju Valley in Ziwu Mountain and entered the boundary of Fangzhou. It was getting late, and Chen Qing's army camped on the spot.
.
A large Chinese army tent was set up. Inside the tent was a sand table from Shaanxi Road. An officer planted a red flag on the sand table's camping ground.
Xu Changqing, who joined the army from the Intelligence Agency, introduced to the coach Chen Qing and several generals: "The distance from the camp to the central county is about 120 miles. There are loess and ravines along the way. Generally speaking, there are villages wherever there are rivers.
Now, Fangzhou has a relatively large population and is relatively wealthy, especially the central county, which has a population of nearly 200,000, but only has a garrison of 5,000."
"Is there any possibility that this army will surrender?" General Gaoding asked.
Xu Changqing shook his head, "There is almost no possibility. The opponent's general is a Jurchen commander named Uzabu. It is impossible for him to surrender to us."
Gao Ding said to Chen Qing: "We only have five thousand troops. We can cooperate inside and outside to break the city!"
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "In fact, a scout army of two hundred people had already sneaked into the city two days ago."
Gao Ding immediately clasped his fists and said: "I am humble enough to ask for orders to lead an army of ten thousand to attack the city!"
Chen Qing nodded, "You can first send people into the city to find the Ping An Inn near the South City Gate. That is the inn run by our intelligence scouts."
"I understand the humble position!"
That night, Gaoding led an army of 10,000 people to leave the camp and march eastward.
........
Central County is a large county. It is the only place where Yanzhou and Yanzhou go south to Guanzhong. It is also the prefecture of Fangzhou. It is irrigated by Beiluo Water. There are large areas of farmland around Central County, with prosperous agriculture and a large population.
The city wall is about twenty-five miles in circumference and is tall and strong. Since the county seat is built at a high place, it has the advantage of being at a commanding height, making it easier to defend and harder to attack.
There are currently 5,000 garrison troops in the county, all of them Han troops. 50,000 state troops from Hedong Road and Shaanxi Road were trained in Guanzhong for two months in the name of intensive training, and then they were assigned to garrison in various places, focusing on Guanzhong, Hanzhong and Jing.
Source: Forty thousand troops are deployed in these three places.
The remaining more than 10,000 troops are stationed in various states in northern Shaanxi. The central county of Fangzhou is the city with the largest number of troops stationed, accounting for half of the total force, with a total of 5,000 troops.
Although the garrison in Central County had received information about Chen Qing's eastern expedition at this time, their sense of crisis was not strong. After all, Central County was still relatively far away from Xihe Road.
At noon that day, a small caravan walked in from outside the city, leading a dozen donkeys and carrying some cheap goods, mainly medicinal materials. This kind of small caravan had no fuel and water, and charged dozens of pence in passing money.
, the soldiers released the caravan into the city.