As Taishan's army went west, they successively captured Mou County and Fenggao. On the fourth day after entering Fenggao, Guan Yu led three troops of Zuo Xiaowei to go down the Yingwen River and directly to the bottom of Yingxian County, conquering them in one day.
city.
Since then, the entire Laiwu Valley has been occupied by Zhang Chong, and his Taishan Army has also occupied hundreds of miles of territory from Tugu County in the north of Mount Tai in the north, Lixia of Mount Tai in the west, the entire Laiwu Valley in the west, and Yimeng Mountain in the east.
Time quickly entered the sixth year of Guanghe. No one expected that Zhang Chong's Taishan Army could stay in the Laiwu Valley for so long. In the past six months, Zhang Chong's Huzhu Manor in Wenyang had made a huge harvest, and the grain tax of the powerful people in the valley had increased.
After getting up, Zhang Chong collected two million shi of food. It can be said that for a long time, Zhang Chong's Taishan Army was not short of food.
In addition, the bandits in Lushan also defected to the Taishan Army one after another due to lack of food. Here I want to talk about Xi Shen's great contribution. Originally there was a bandit in Lushan with a thousand people, and he originally agreed to join the Taishan Army.
, so the cavalry commander Xi Shen took the initiative to go into Lushan to recruit these bandits. Xi Shen entered the mountain with only ten guardsmen. Things originally went smoothly, and the Lushan bandits also planned to find a stable backer, but then
Just after the banquet was over, the leader of the thieves over there returned and said he would rather have a chicken head than a phoenix tail.
If it were an ordinary person, this matter would be a mess, and even if it was not handled well, one would have to lose one's life. But Xi Shen accurately discovered the common mentality among Lushan thieves to beg for food, and the core thieves all hope to join the prosperous group.
The Taishan Army's leader was just unwilling to give up the power he had in his hands and insisted on going his own way. Then Xi Shen led his ten guardsmen and broke into the thief's tent, captured the leader directly, and then faked the order.
, ordered the Lu Mountain bandits to break out of the stronghold and come out of the mountain to accept surrender.
After this battle, Xi Shen was directly promoted to the foreign army and served as a general. His own army was selected from the thousands of Lushan bandits. It can be said that Xi Shen rose up.
Then in Jinan, Zhang Chong's senior brother Da Beard has been communicating with Zhang Chong in the past six months. At first, the Jizhou headquarters kept issuing orders, which had reached the point of expelling Zhang Chong from the church. However, as Zhang Chong won one victory after another in the Laiwu Valley,
In the end, they even completely occupied the Laiwu Valley. The tone on the Jizhou side has become softer and softer. In the end, Tang Zhou, the leader of the Jinan canal, was directly transferred to the Jizhou headquarters to assist the returning Ma Yuanyi, who was specifically responsible for the work of Taiping Road in Kyoto, while Jinan
The leader of Taiping Road was Ji Sun.
After Zhang Chong heard that Tang Zhou had been transferred, he felt quite regretful. It was not that he could not bear to part with his enemy, but that if he had not been transferred, he would have personally led the team into Dongpingling to kill him. But now Tang Zhou
I have gone to Hebei, and more likely to Kyoto later, so I can only put this matter aside for now.
Apart from this bad news, there is still good news on the Taiping Road side. As he has established a foothold in the Laiwu Valley in central and southern Shandong, his prestige within the church has skyrocketed.
Even fellow Taiping Taoists in Jingzhou now know that Zhang Chong, a disciple of the Renguan sect and known as General Shi, Taishan Fangqukui, has become the most important person in the sect. Although the time for the great uprising has not yet come, Taishan Fang is doing so in the name of Taishan bandits.
The victory of the friendly side undoubtedly greatly enhanced the confidence of the leaders of all parties. After all, anyone who launched a rebellion against the Han family with four hundred years of power was a little lacking in confidence.
Didn't you hear? With Tiangong's health problems, the daily teaching affairs have been handled by more capable Ren Gong. Since then, the Ren Gong group has become more popular, and some people in the church can't wait until the end of the year to start an uprising.
If it weren’t for Ren Gong himself, he wouldn’t be sure. He felt that the prophecy of “the sky is dead and the world will be well-off” can give blessings to all parties, because the saying that the year of Jiazi has been changing since ancient times, in the year of Jiazi, actually corresponds to the saying of Huang Tian on behalf of the sky.
It’s a great undertaking. Therefore, the Lord has given repeated orders, and all parties must accumulate strength according to the original plan.
All of this was caused by Zhang Chong's capture of the Laiwu Valley.
But to be honest, this impact was still limited to Taiping Road, because Zhang Chong stopped moving after he captured the Laiwu Valley. Instead, he stayed in Fenggao and trained troops in the fields. Therefore, the fall of the Laiwu Valley did not have any impact on the world. In fact, if it hadn't been
Feng Gao's plan did not reach Kyoto this year, so perhaps even Liu Hong of the country might not know about it.
It turned out that when Zhang Ju led his 400 remnant soldiers to flee from the west city gate, he did not send a military report to Kyoto. Instead, he moved his army directly south, crossed Culai Mountain and stopped in Liangfu County. However, he later felt that he was still far away from Fenggao.
It was too close, so we moved all the way to the westernmost mountain city of Nimeng Road, Nanwuyang, and retreated two hundred miles in a row.
Zhang Ju still has something. Although he hurriedly evacuated Fenggao, he took everything he needed to bring. Whether it was the governor's seal, the prefect's subordinate cap, or his little wife who was in Fenggao, nothing was lost.
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As soon as Zhang Ju arrived in Nanwuyang, he used the prefect's seal to garrison the Fei County camp at the easternmost valley entrance of the Nimeng Passage, and the entire army moved to Nanwuyang. Then he sent a message to the three southern counties of the prefecture, namely Nanwuyang.
, Fei Guo, and the county soldiers from the three counties and seven cities of Nancheng each moved 500 troops and were all stationed in the hills of Mengshan Mountain on the north side of Nanwuyang. As for Liangfu, Juping, Bo County in the middle of the county, and Chi in the northwest of the county.
Counties can only accept their own destiny.
With this arrangement, Zhang Ju settled down in Nanwuyang with peace of mind. Originally, his idea was to organize an army to defeat thieves in the south of the county. In addition to Fei Guo's 500 battalions, there were 1,500 county soldiers from the three counties south of the county.
By mobilizing the Yang clan's tribesmen in Nancheng and then recruiting warriors from three counties, an army of 5,000 people can be built.
But the first step in raising an army fell apart. With the exchange of letters between Taishan's powerful people, it became increasingly clear to the powerful people in the south of the county just how strong the Taishan Army was.
In particular, Hu's mother's family and the Nancheng Yang family have been friends for generations. Through the words of Hu's mother's family, they said this. Although they are in enemy territory and don't want to return to the embrace of the Han every day, there is one saying.
, the talents of the prefect Zhang Ju and the local troops in Taishan were simply not enough to regain the three eastern counties of the county. Hu Muban said that the Taishan bandits this time were more ferocious and violent than Gongsun Ju twenty years ago, so he must do everything possible.
Don't waste time fighting, just send him off when you come. You must wait until the imperial court's soldiers from the north and the south arrive. The soldiers will press the border and capture the thieves in one fell swoop. Hu Muban also said in the letter that when the time comes, he will lead the powerful forces inside and outside to cooperate and regain his homeland in one fell swoop.
What Hu Muban said was so affectionate that Yang Zhi had to treat it with caution. So it was natural that under the private connection of the three powerful counties in the south of the county, the unanimous result of all the families was to keep it quiet and wait for the arrival of the northern and southern armies.
Perform a thunderous strike against the Taishan bandits entrenched in the east of the county.
But in addition to the above-mentioned high-sounding reasons, the unwillingness to put out the fire for this failed governor and waste their own troops is the most practical reason that these powerful men do not put on the table.
Once the powerful people in the south of the county clearly rejected Zhang Ju, Zhang Ju knew that his career was over. In the end, he had no choice but to report the fall of Fenggao to the country.
But it just so happened that when Taishan County's fast horses arrived in Kyoto in July, the country was dealing with the affairs of Bajun Banchen Barbarians. This powerful force of the Han Dynasty had served the country several times as a loyal soldier against the Qiang rebellion.
No longer able to bear the torture of local county officials, he finally rebelled.
To be honest, neither the former Qiang people nor the current Banzhen Man were ambitious and subversive people, but they were forced to rebel against the pressure of local county officials.
Loyal and righteous soldiers like Banchenman who have served the country many times are not treated with due favor, and they are not treated as human beings. They serve Chu Chu more than slaves. Banchenman's military service is already heavy, so
To collect heavy taxes from them, it was originally to sell blood to buy peace for the family, but now? Even selling wives and children is not enough to satisfy the desires of county officials. So what should we do?
At this point, these banzhen barbarians have no intention of rebelling. After all, they are loyal soldiers of the Han court. They have lived and died for the Han court for generations. So they went to the prefect to redress their grievances, but the prefect of the Han family was just a sitting prefect, in charge of things.
They are those powerful officials, they are standing governors. So what is the use of redressing grievances, will you have to fight back in the end?
Therefore, when Liu Hong was troubled by Banzhenman from Bajun, Zhang Rang, as his father, Zhang Changshi, naturally felt sorry for Liu Hong's son, so he thoughtfully withheld the memorial from Taishan County.
In Zhang Rang's view, these Taishan people can't steal the disease of ringworm and scabies. The Taishan people are born to be rebellious and have rebelled many times. But so what? As soon as the imperial soldiers arrived, they melted like frost and snow.
Heaven and Earth. So, this thief can never be killed, so why rush him for a moment?
Therefore, the imperial court did not care about this mess in Taishan County, and this made the governor Zhang Ju suffer. He could only continue to be the governor, fearing that the Taishan soldiers would come over Mengshan Mountain and kill him.
Well, by the end of this year, Taishan's plan was gone, and Liu Hong finally learned about Taishan's situation. Originally, Liu Hong planned to let Zhang Ju take the blame and perform meritorious service. After all, it is better to perform meritorious service than to perform meritorious deeds. But at that time, some courtiers opposed it.
, saying that the prefect had already lost integrity if he failed to die with the city, so how could he be allowed to lead the army again. Some people objected, but Liu Hong did not insist, so he dismissed Zhang Ju. After that, Zhang Ju bicycled back to his hometown in Yuyang.
, got rid of the vortex of Mount Tai.
Although the imperial court finally discovered that the Taishan bandits were causing trouble in the prefectures and counties, no matter what, Taishan still cultivated and cultivated in the fertile land of Laiwu Valley for half a year. During this process, although Zhang Chong's military strength did not increase greatly, his overall strength did.
Earth-shaking changes have taken place.
There are 6,000 soldiers in the army, and the armor rate has reached 50%. The additional armors are partly captured from Fenggao soldiers, and more are made by the Taishan Army's craftsman battalion in the past six months. Thanks to the addition of Dongpingling craftsmen
The use of water and water rows increased the speed of forging iron sheets tenfold. This production capacity increased immediately, and two thousand pairs of two-crotch armors were produced in half a year. After equipping the entire army, it directly made the entire army's armored team reach 50%.
Now all the soldiers and horses are well fed and they are all veterans who have stood on the battlefield for a long time. Now their fighting equipment has been replenished. It can be said that the current Taishan soldiers can really fight against the imperial encirclement and suppression troops.
Of course, what is more important to Taishan is that Zhao E gave birth to a son to Qu Kuai Zhang Chong. This was the inheritance of their Taishan army, so Zhang Chong named his son Zhang Cheng.
Then the last day of the fifth year of Light and Harmony ended in a heavy snowfall, and the magnificent Sixth Year of Light and Harmony came.