At the same time that Chen Qing captured the Shaanxi Road, Yue Fei, the deputy envoy of Xuanfu on the Jinghu North Road, ordered Wang Gui and Dong Xian to be the vanguard, and personally led an army of 30,000 to attack Jianghuai eastward. With great momentum along the way, he captured Guangzhou and Huang within a month.
Prefecture, Qizhou, Anqing, Luzhou and other prefectures recruited nearly 50,000 surrendered troops.
Liu Yu was shocked and immediately sent Li as the commander-in-chief, commanding 80,000 troops to go south to fight for the Jianghuai River. At the same time, Wanyan Heng, the commander of the remaining Jin soldiers, the eldest son of Wanyan Wushu, sent 10,000 Jurchen cavalry to assist the Jin soldiers in the battle.
In early September, Li Cheng led his army along the Feishui River to Shouchun County where Anfeng's army was located. Although Li Cheng was defeated by Chen Qing in Chengji County, his defeats in the Central Plains were not many.
In front of the map, Li Cheng said to his subordinates: "Yue Fei's eastern expedition was like a crossbow. It was very strong at the beginning, but the further east it went, the weaker the offensive momentum became. After he captured Luzhou, he did not continue eastward.
, indicating that his momentum has been exhausted. If we cut off Shucheng to the south, the Hefei Song Army will lose supplies and will be forced to abandon Hefei City, so Shucheng is the key."
General Pan Yue worried: "Shu City is tall and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack. I heard that there are thousands of Song troops guarding it. We see its importance, and the Song troops also know it. I'm afraid it will not be easy to capture."
Li Cheng smiled lightly and said: "Having been dealing with Chen Qing for so long, I have learned more or less a few of his various siege tactics."
Shucheng is located one hundred and fifty miles southwest of Luzhou. It is the only way for Anqing Prefecture to enter Luzhou. Its strategic location is very important.
There are currently 3,000 garrison troops in Shucheng. In the afternoon, Wang Gui led 1,000 soldiers to Shucheng.
Wang Gui is stationed in Hefei, and he came to Shucheng to collect grain. Zeng Huang, the defender of Shucheng, said that the grain ships have been arranged and will be transported to Hefei early tomorrow morning.
At night, Song Army sentries patrolled back and forth on the top of Shucheng City. A fleet of boats sailed down the river. The boats were all five-hundred-stone cargo ships, about one foot high. They looked no different from ordinary cargo ships.
The Shuicheng Gate is closed at night, and cargo ships can only be anchored in the moat.
This situation occurs almost every day, and the soldiers guarding the city are not surprised.
Each ship was crowded with more than a hundred soldiers of the Puppet Qi Army. Of course, if there were big ships, Li Chenggong would directly use the big ships to attack the city. Unfortunately, there were no big ships, so he could only use this 500-stone cargo ship.
There are five fierce oil fire cabinets placed in each cargo ship. This is the most famous kerosene weapon of the Song Dynasty. It is made of wrought copper and filled with hundreds of kilograms of kerosene. In front of it is a copper pipe. This kind of copper pipe
Of course, it's not to the level of guns, it's just simply fused together with copper water.
The principle of the fierce oil fire cabinet is similar to that of a bellows. Two soldiers push the piston to spray out the kerosene up to several feet. If the kerosene is ignited, it becomes a flamethrower.
Hundreds of kerosene were kept in the warehouse of the Bianliang Ordnance Supervision until Li Cheng discovered it. The Central Plains Army did not pay as much attention to kerosene as the Western Army did. This was also related to the place where the kerosene was produced, but Li Cheng and Chen Qing fought.
Countless, he understands the importance of kerosene.
He immediately moved several hundred mengyou and kerosene back to the military camp. This time when he went south, he also brought mengyou and kettles with him. Thirty cargo ships were moored on the moat of Xicheng. Ten thousand puppet Qi troops appeared in the distance, led by Li Cheng.
Lead personally.
The leading ship lit a lantern, which was the signal to take action. One hundred and fifty heavy oil fire cabinets from thirty cargo ships simultaneously sprayed fire oil on the city. The defenders on the city were awakened by the black rain falling from the sky.
, shouted, "There's a situation!"
"Dang! Dang! Dang!" The alarm bell rang on the top of the city.
Immediately afterwards, hundreds of burning torches were thrown onto the city, and the kerosene on the city immediately burned, causing hundreds of soldiers to retreat in shock.
"It's on fire! It's on fire!"
The soldiers of the Song Army on top of the city shouted loudly.
But the fierce oil fire cabinet continued to spray fire oil upwards, and the fire became more and more intense.
At this time, Li Cheng led 10,000 troops to approach the city wall. This was a complete copycat of Chen Qing's method of capturing Pingliang City. However, Li Cheng did not have fire soldiers under his command, so they could not build fire armor.
Soldiers from the ambush in thirty large ships rushed out and hung thirty siege ladders on the top of the city. Each soldier carried a wet bedding and climbed to the top of the city. Five thousand soldiers of the puppet Qi army followed closely.
Behind them, three thousand soldiers used wet bedding to extinguish the fire at the top of the city. They also occupied the south top of the city. The five thousand puppet Qi troops behind them surged up and killed all of them on the top of the city.
At this time, General Wang Gui led more than 3,000 soldiers to the west city. The fire burning above made him hesitate, but the fire suddenly went out. Just when he was surprised, a large number of troops appeared on the city.
"Oh no!"
Wang Gui immediately realized that the enemy army had used this method to attack the city.
"General!"
A soldier rushed over and reported: "The puppet Qi army has entered the city, numbering nearly ten thousand people."
"Withdraw troops!"
Wang Gui decisively issued the order, "The entire army retreats to the east gate!"
The Song army quickly retreated towards the east gate and directly towards Hefei. Li Cheng captured Shucheng without any bloodshed.
Shucheng was lost and the supply line of the Hefei garrison was cut off. Wang Gui had to abandon Hefei City, led an army of 10,000 to retreat south, boarded a ship on the Yangtze River, and returned to Anqing Prefecture.
The fall of Luzhou also meant that Li Cheng's army cut off the momentum of Yue Fei's army's eastward advance. Yue Fei stopped his eastward advance and concentrated on consolidating the occupied Jianghuai area.
In Lin'an, the censor Shen Li placed an impeachment memorial on Qin Hui's desk, "I have conducted a detailed investigation, and all kinds of evidence are conclusive. Lu Yihao is suspected of sheltering his younger brother for a long time, so that his nephew Lu Jiao has committed many evil deeds, and he is resentful."
Angry, but not held accountable."
Qin Hui was very satisfied after reading the impeachment memorial. He had been looking for excuses for Lu Yihao, but Lu Yihao was very cautious and could not find any excuses.
Qin Hui then turned his target to Lu Yihao's family, but unexpectedly received a major harvest.
Lu Yihao's second brother Lu Datong served as the general judge of Yuanzhou, but Lu Datong's son Lu Jiao was a complete bully, bullying men and women, provoking quarrels and provoking troubles. Within five years, he was accused of repeatedly raping civilian women, but because of the Lu family
He was given asylum and was not held accountable in any way.
Qin Hui looked at the impeachment document again and asked, "Who is this Liu Er?"
"This Liu Er is a butcher. He has a daughter named Liu Ying in his family. She is learning pipa in Lefang. However, she is attracted by Lu Jiao and his gang. They take her to a brothel and humiliate her. They also falsely accuse her of being a prostitute. Liu Er is so angry that he takes
The ax went to Lu Jiao to settle a score, but Lu Jiao snatched the ax and chopped him to death in the street. This incident made a big fuss, but the government only ruled that the two had failed in the fight and paid eighty gu in compensation."
"Are there any witnesses?"
"Beizhi specially interviewed some of the parties involved, and they all proved that Liu Er did not take action at all. He was knocked down by Lu Qiao's men. Lu Qiao personally chopped off Liu Er's head with an axe. Beizhi had the testimony of dozens of bystanders. It is so obvious.
The murder incident went unsolved, and it would not have been possible without the intervention of the Lu family."
Qin Hui stroked his beard and said proudly: "Very good. The Yushitai directly impeached Lu Yihao for being lax in running the family, allowing his family members to kill civilians and insult women. This time I want to see how he can be shameless and rely on his position!"
In the afternoon of the next day, Lu Yihao returned to the mansion with a lot of thoughts, pacing back and forth in the study, sighing. At this time, the eldest son Lu Jin quickly came to the door of the study, bowed and said: "Father, are you looking for me?"
"Come in!"
When Lu Jin walked into the study, he felt that his father was in a very low mood and did not dare to say anything. He stood at the door with his hands hanging down.
"How much do you know about Lu Jiao?"
Lu Jiao was actually the eldest grandson of Lu Datong. Because he was a posthumous son, Lu Datong raised him as his son since he was a child, so that everyone thought he was Lu Datong's son.
"The child has heard about his affairs. His second uncle doted on him too much and developed his lawless character. He got into many troubles and it was his second uncle who took care of his funeral affairs."
Lu Yihao sighed and said, "It's God's will! I persuaded my second brother not to indulge this rebellious grandson before, but he didn't listen. Now the disaster has finally come out."
Lu Jin was startled, "Father, what happened?"
"Qin Hui focused on this rebellious grandson and sent the supervisory censor to Yuanzhou to investigate for two months. The final investigation report shocked me. Lu Qiao was responsible for at least five lives, raped dozens of women from good families, and was executed in Yuanzhou.
The people called Lu an evil thief, and he brought shame to the Lu family."
"Then I'm afraid my second uncle will be impeached."
Lu Yihao sneered: "Will Qin Hui's target be your second uncle?"
"Ah! Did Qin Hui attack his father?"
Lu Yihao nodded, "Qin Hui impeached me, the Lu family, for being lax in running the family and allowing my children to harm the people. Your second uncle used my power to protect Lu Qiao. The evidence is conclusive. He asked the officials to punish me for the crime of being unethical and to remove my prime minister."
Lu Jin knew that the problem was serious. Even if he was implicated by his family, he still had a heavy responsibility.
"Father, do the officials really want it?"
Lu Yihao said with a sad expression: "The officials talked to me today and gave me a step to find an excuse to resign. So I submitted my resignation this afternoon on the grounds of poor health."