Chapter seven hundred and twelve encounter bandits
Before dawn the next day, Lu Wei led 20 officials to prepare to show up. The 20 officials were all old and new. The six older officials were all in their thirties, with five or six years of experience, and were all county magistrates.
Or county captains, who will serve as county magistrates, and the fourteen are young Jinshi, who will serve as county captains and chief ministers, and then there are state government officials.
Although the conditions in Xiazhou are difficult, these twenty officials are also lucky. After serving as county officials for five years, they can come back and be promoted to a higher level.
Going with them to Xiazhou were 3,000 cavalry guards and 30,000 camels. These camels went north, of course, to transport food supplies to the south. There was also a large amount of food supplies stored in Lingzhou, which would take at least half a year.
Only then can all shipments be completed.
Chen Qing personally sent a group of officials out of the city. At the city gate, Chen Qing told Lu Wei and everyone: "The key to doing well in Xiazhou is to get the support of the Qiang people. I signed a detailed agreement with the Qiang people. You should study it carefully."
Let’s talk about what is official Qiang and what is autonomous Qiang. There are clear provisions in the agreement, but in addition to strictly abiding by the agreement, you must also respect the Qiang people and deal with them fairly. There are many Qiang people in the city, and they are all citizens of Sichuan and Shaanxi.
If they have a conflict with the Han people, remember not to take sides and deal with them fairly, not only to avoid Qiang people being arrogant, but also to avoid Han people bullying the weak."
Lu Wei and all his subordinates clasped their fists together and said: "I will bear in mind the teachings of the Xuanfu Envoy and my humble duty!"
Everyone set off, and Chen Qing watched them go away.
After Chen Qing returned from Xixia, he has been dealing with the aftermath of the War to Destroy Xia. In addition, Chen Qing is most concerned about the affairs of Jingxiang, especially Jinghu South Road. Many of his soldiers are from Yuezhou
With the people of Jiangling Prefecture, he got along well with the people of Jinghu South Road during the process of annihilating Yang Yao. Even when he left Yuezhou and Jiangling Prefecture, the people were reluctant to see him off.
Now that the people of Jinghu are in trouble, how can he stand by and watch? Moreover, if the banditry on Jinghu South Road is not quelled as soon as possible, once these banditry becomes a problem, it will become the second Yang Yao, which will seriously affect the commercial exchanges between Bashu and Jiangnan.
Therefore, Chen Qing fully agreed with Zhao Qiaoyun's plan. He also felt that Zhao Qiaoyun's plan was slightly more conservative. The day after he came back, he ordered Yang Yuanqing to lead 5,000 scout cavalry south quickly along the Shangzhou Road, with Yang Yuanqing in charge.
Suppressing bandits by land and water in Jingnan.
Taking the Shangzhou Road was a shortcut. Four days later, the army arrived in Xiangyang. Yang Yuanqing sent someone to send Yue Fei a personal letter from Chen Qing, hoping to use the road to cross the border.
Yue Fei was really embarrassed when he received Chen Qing's letter. According to the court regulations, the Sichuan-Shaanxi army's cross-border excuse must be approved by the court before it can be implemented. However, Chen Qing did not get the court's approval, so he directly used the road.
Although Chen Qing could be so domineering and ignore the imperial court, Yue Fei could not do it. If he allowed Chen Qing's troops to cross the border, he would definitely be held accountable by the imperial court.
Just when he was in a dilemma, it was a coincidence that Zhe Yanzhi, the special envoy from Lin'an, happened to be passing through Xiangyang and stayed in the posthouse for the night.
"Oh? Chen Qing's army of 5,000 people is going to cross the border to Jinghu South Road?"
Zheyanzhi was surprised, "What are they doing on Jinghu South Road?"
Yue Fei handed Chen Qing's letter to Zhe Yanzhi, "Zhe Yan will know after you read it."
Zhe Yanzhi took the letter, read it and said with a smile: "Chen Qing respects Yue Dutong very much! He uses honorifics in his words. He has never been so polite to the court."
Yue Fei explained with some embarrassment: "Actually, I have no connection or friendship with him. I just met him a few times."
Zhe Yanzhi smiled and said: "No need to explain, Yue Dutong is an anti-Jin general, he naturally respects him, and the same goes for Han Dutong."
Yue Fei sighed and said: "Although I want to help him and let their troops cross the border, but the court's laws are here, how can I explain it?"
Zhe Yanzhi thought for a while and said: "Let's do this! Let General Yang write a new border crossing document. Instead of writing five thousand troops, write 4,800 troops. In this way, I will be the guarantee and we can allow them to cross the border and suppress them.
bandit."
"Why is it enough to write about 4,800 people?" Yue Fei asked doubtfully.
Zhe Yanzhi smiled and said: "There is a reason for this. I am a special envoy of the imperial court. I can represent the imperial court, but I cannot represent the emperor. Generally, when an army transits the border, as long as it does not enter within 500 miles of Lin'an, then the imperial court will protect the people below 5,000.
Approval, more than 5,000 people must be approved by the emperor."
Yue Fei nodded, "No wonder Zhe Gong asked him to underreport 200 people."
"Of course, we can't cheat and let him underreport the number of people by 200. He must also reduce the number by 200 and use the real 4,800 people to cross the border."
Yue Fei cupped his fists and said, "I understand my humble position!"
Yue Fei asked Yang Yuanqing to resubmit the transit documents and reduce the number to 4,800. Yang Yuanqing also cooperated and reduced the number of cavalry by 200, just enough for them to escort Zhe Yanzhi to Jingzhao.
Yang Yuanqing passed Xiangyang and went south, arriving at Jiangling Mansion two days later.
That night the army arrived at Longshan, which was still thirty miles away from Jiangling. The soldiers were quite tired, so Yang Yuanqing ordered the whole army to rest on the spot.
The five thousand cavalry were all scouts and had strong survival ability in the wild. The soldiers made fire to make soup, fed the horses to rest, and a hundred scouts dispersed in all directions. There were many thieves in this area, so they did not dare to be careless.
Yang Yuanqing had just had a few mouthfuls of soup steamed buns when he saw a scout and two old men rushing over. As soon as the old man saw Yang Yuanqing, he immediately knelt down, kowtowed and begged: "General, help me!"
Yang Yuanqing was startled and said quickly: "What happened, please tell me!"
"General Qi, we are citizens of Fangcheng Town. Just half an hour ago, a group of bandits surrounded our town and wanted to loot the town and rob the women. The two of us escaped and went to Jiangling City to report for help."
"How many bandits are there?"
"There are four to five hundred people. The bandit leader is called Liu Gui. He is Luocao in Longshan. He is a very vicious robber. He has looted many villages."
Longshan is the big mountain in front of them, with a radius of dozens of miles and many peaks. It is indeed a hiding place for fallen grass.
Yang Yuanqing asked again: "Where is Fangcheng Town?"
"Just ten miles northwest."
"Hmph! As the saying goes, rabbits don't eat the grass around their nests, but they actually eat the grass around their nests?"
"General, I don't know, Jing Lake is in chaos and there are bandits everywhere, so why don't you care if it's just grass on the edge of your nest?"
Yang Yuanqing stood up and ordered: "Send the order for the entire army to assemble!"
Fangcheng Town is a middle town with about 200 households. At this time, in front of an earth temple in the west of the town, hundreds of bandits held torches and illuminated the surrounding area like daylight. In the middle of the open space, hundreds of people were kneeling on the ground.
After pleading hard, more than a dozen girls were dragged out by them, squatting aside and covering their faces while weeping.
A tall man nearly seven feet tall was standing on the millstone and sternly lecturing the people. This man was the bandit leader Liu Gui, who was originally a deputy commander under Liu Guangshi.
After Liu Guangshi's right-hand man, Wang Meng and Li Qiong, were betrayed by Zhang Jun, Liu Guangshi knew that the situation was over, so he led 20,000 troops to surrender to Zhang Jun. However, his troops stationed in various states and counties became leaderless, and each of them disbanded to fend for themselves.
After Zhang Jun withdrew his troops, these self-sufficient troops began to rob homes and houses, and gradually formed dozens of bands of thieves, wreaking havoc on Jinghu South Road.
Letters of help from local officials flew to the court like snowflakes, but they were all withheld by Qin Hui. He only told the emperor in a bland way that thieves were rampant on Jinghu South Road and hungry people were everywhere. He only needed to be tax-free for three years to recuperate and recuperate. No more.
Send troops to suppress bandits.
The local government had no choice. Officials headed by Zhang Shun, the prefect of Jiangling, jointly requested Chen Qing to rescue him. Only then did Zheng Ping write an urgent letter to Jingzhao, requesting that troops be sent to support Jinghu Nanhu.
Zheng Ping's six thousand troops had not arrived yet, but Yang Yuanqing's cavalry arrived first.
Liu Gui was one of the dozens of bandits. He stood on the millstone and shouted viciously: "I don't have to kill you, sir. If you don't want to die, just listen. Our brothers want to eat and marry. Everyone in your family
Hand over your money and food honestly. If a young woman hands it over, she will be free of money and food. If I find out that you are hiding rice, money and women, then I'm sorry, I will chop off your heads and drink your heart to eat!
"
As soon as he finished speaking, a wolf-fang arrow shot out with great force, hitting Liu Gui's throat. Liu Gui let out a muffled scream and fell down on his back.
There was a loud sound of horse hooves all around, and countless cavalry came to kill them. One of the cavalry shouted: "We are the cavalry of the Western Army. All the people should lie down. If you lie down, you can survive!"
All the people were so frightened that they lay on the ground. Arrows rained down from all directions. The bandits cried and ran for their lives, but they were shot down one after another by arrows.