The big beam was burning with fierce fire, and finally crashed down.
The screams rang out and gradually subsided.
Jiuqu Garden beside Qixian Lake is already a sea of fire...
Li Xia and Zhu Cheng stood on Baiyang Slope to the west and watched the fire.
Zhu Cheng used the trick of feigning defeat to lure the enemy, which Li Xia wanted to use but did not dare to use, and then withdrew directly from Jiuqu Garden. When the Mongolian army caught up, he set off another fire.
"By the way, who owns this garden?" Zhu Cheng said suddenly: "With such a big garden, I, a little military general, can't afford to offend anyone, especially someone with some big connections."
"General Zhu just remembered to ask now?"
"Yes, I didn't think about this at first. I just thought about ambush... Lieutenant Li, you see, although this fire may not burn many Mongolian troops to death, it can severely dampen their morale."
At this point, Zhu Cheng seemed to have forgotten about the owner of the garden again, and started talking while pointing to the terrain in the distance.
"If the Mongolian army is determined to capture Qingfu County, it will not be difficult. They spend some time digging the Fujiang River and the city wall will collapse. But that is not their intention. They want to plunder. I estimate that it will take another three days.
In two days, Wulianghetai will go down the river.
Therefore, a small Mongolian army was delayed for a day by my fire attack today, and then it did not dare to march at full speed. Sooner or later, it will return without success..."
Li Xia nodded and said, "What General Zhu said makes sense."
Zhu Cheng said "Hey" and said: "There are too few troops in southern Shu. All you and I can do is to hold off the Mongolian army with a small number of troops. What I am worried about is Hezhou. If the Mongolian army captures Hezhou, the entire
Sichuan and Shu will be lost. Alas..."
The two of them chatted, and the topic got further and further away from the battle formation.
Zhu Cheng also fought against the Mongolian army in the Chengdu area in his early years. He had a lot of experience. He had been under Yi Shiying's command for a long time and he also knew the art of war.
Li Xia felt that he had benefited a lot.
It wasn't until the sky completely darkened and the firelight in the distance gradually dimmed that Zhu Cheng remembered the previous topic.
"Ah, it's too far away again. I always forget to consider these things when fighting. Whose garden was burned down? Especially someone I can't afford to offend."
Li Xia said: "General Zhu, don't worry about it. You are blocking the enemy in Qingfu County. I will handle this small matter."
"That's good, that's good. I was just too excited thinking about burning the Mongolian army. If I got into trouble, tsk tsk. But it's a pity that the Mongolian army was burned, but the corpses were scorched, and there wasn't much gain. It was easy to command and couldn't get it when I turned around.
Pay for the military reward..."
Zhu Cheng talked quite a lot, and he also talked a lot about himself, such as how Changning's soldiers had to farm their own fields after training.
Li Xia said: "I have the head here. General Zhu can just bring two hundred of them."
"Ah? Isn't this not good?"
"If General Zhu hadn't held back the Mongolian army in the east, Qingfu County wouldn't have been able to capture these heads."
"But isn't it against military discipline?"
"Is there any? Does the Changning Army have military discipline that prohibits accepting heads?"
"Ah, it seems not..."
As far as Li Xia was concerned, most of the soldiers under his command were private soldiers who had not been registered in the military. Their wages, rewards, and pensions were all raised by him through various means, so there was no harm in sharing some of the heads.
Zhu Cheng felt embarrassed and refused several times, but finally accepted it.
He accepted Li Xia's favor, and although he didn't say any more words of gratitude, his attitude was close and encouraging.
In the next two days, Changning's army retreated while fighting and retreated to the camp at Haokouyan.
Seeing that there were many artillery vehicles and trenches everywhere in the surrounding mountains, the Mongolian army stopped attacking. They also sent detective horses to find out that the so-called Qingfu Navy only had two large ships and eight small ships. They were too lazy to continue the attack and simply retreated.
Li Xia and Zhu Cheng concluded that Wu Lianghetai had no intention of attacking Xuzhou again and planned to march eastward directly.
This battle seemed easy, but in fact, because the Changning army fought in a very organized manner, the Mongolian army had no intention of getting entangled.
When the Changning army returned, Li Xia sent another thousand shi of grain.
Zhu Cheng was very surprised, but for a moment he didn't know whether to accept it or not, and he even stuttered a bit when he spoke.
"This... Lieutenant Li... this... is not good, right?" Zhu Cheng scratched his face and said, "I came here for a trip and didn't kill many enemies. It was too..."
"General I wish you don't have to refuse. The Changning army is a soldier who can really kill the enemy and serve the country. They can't fight on an empty stomach. There's no need to worry. Just tell Commander Yi clearly."
~~
Han Qi'an stood next to Li Xia, watching the Changning army go away, and finally said: "Alang doesn't have much food and grass, so why send it to the Changning army again?"
"Don't we have much food?" Li Xia asked, "Didn't Mr. Yi Ning calculate that our food plus Zhang Yuanming's food is a lot, enough to give Chang Ning's army this thousand stone."
Han Qi'an smiled and said: "There is no need to 'add', anyway, they all belong to Zhang Yuanming. It's just...Alang decided to take action against Zhang Yuanming?"
Li Xia didn't answer, but started talking about other topics.
"Don't forget that this time the Changning Army did not kill as many enemies as us. In fact, it is because the Mongolian army pays more attention to them and does not dare to attack rashly. For the time being, the combat power of the Changning Army is far superior to ours."
"I understand that Alang wants to win over them."
"Not really...I recently discovered that the Mongolian army is not as strong as I originally thought, and the Song army is not as weak as I originally thought. But this time in the battle of Mahujiang, the imperial court had a great deal of influence on the entire strategy.
A mistake, or a lag.
The Song Dynasty used scholar-bureaucrats to rule the world. I still can't see many of them clearly, but I can feel that the court gave preferential treatment to the scholar-bureaucrats... This was too much. Mongolia was more powerful and went all out in the war. On the Song side,
It is also full of expediency and checks and balances.
Killing famous generals, subduing military force with literature, and not having a strong fighting spirit. In such a war, you can still be undefeated and resist the Mongols for more than 20 years. I can only say that the Huai people, Jing people, and Shu people lived up to the Song Dynasty..."
Han Qi'an said: "If Alang looks back at the past, he should know that not only are people from Huai and Jing people from Shu, but also people from the north have not failed the Song Dynasty. It is the Song Dynasty that has failed the people of the north."
"Hmm." Li Xia said: "That's a long way off. Let's talk about Zhang Yuanming's grain... Although Qingfu has three county officials, Zhang Yuanming is more like a scholar-official than us. You see, his grain is more than the county granary. I must be
To be snatched.
Not only did I want to rob him of his food, but I also wanted to rob him of his land, so I had no choice but to kill him. Regarding this matter... In terms of good and evil, I can't say how evil Zhang Yuanming is, I am more evil.
From Zhang Yuanming's perspective, why should he hand over his food and land? He has no damning evidence in my hands, but I know I should kill him.
The soldiers and civilians of Sichuan and Sichuan went forward one after another, throwing their heads and blood, even if they didn't have enough to eat, they were still working hard. The Mongolian army was already killing them, and the country and the world were about to be destroyed. However, the scholar-bureaucrats still occupied the fertile land and beautiful houses, thinking it was natural... I had something in my heart
There are more reasons to kill Zhang Yuanming, but I don’t know how to say them.”
Li Xia was thinking about what he said.
He could see some things, but the time he had been reborn was too short and he couldn't figure them out yet.
Han Qi'an understood what he meant, pondered for a moment, and then spoke.
"The Song Dynasty treated the gentry too much, and the long-term disadvantages had already appeared. Therefore, as early as the Taiping Period, Wang Anshi wanted to reform.
At that time, Wen Yanbo said, "Ruling the world with scholar-bureaucrats is not the best way to govern the world with the common people." Wang Anshi said, "If the legal system is there, the finances will be sufficient and China will be strong." Wen Yanbo also said, "It is important for people to implement it."
Does Alang know who the ‘people’ in these words are?”
Li Xia said: "A person like Zhang Yuanming?"
"Yes, but it's more than that. A county is as big as three or four officials, and three or four hundred government servants. Without these squires and county magistrates, how can the court manage it? How can we talk about the vastness of the world?
Therefore, it is not wrong to say "ruling the world with scholar-bureaucrats", but the Song Dynasty did not suppress mergers and excessively favored the gentry... Wen Yanbo, like Wang Anshi, was a prefecture and county magistrate, and the transfer envoys moved all the way to the center, and they were rich and practical talents.
.How can we not understand the disadvantages in this?
The key point lies in this sentence, "It must be carried out by others." It can be seen that even if Wen Yanbo opposed the reform, he also gritted his teeth against the scholar-bureaucrats. He opposed the reform because he believed that the path of reform was unworkable."
When Han Qi'an said this, he sighed and said: "With the talents of Wang Anshi and Wen Yanbo, we are still unable to make changes. Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, and Fu Bi can't do it either. I'm afraid A Lang can't do it either."
"Yes, I am definitely not as good as Wang Anshi and Wen Yanbo." Li Xia said: "There is also Jia Sidao, he can't do it, and I am not as good as Jia Sidao."
At this point, Li Xia sounded more serious and said: "So, what I want to do is to rebel. And if I want to rebel, how can I not kill the local tyrants and evil gentry?"
Han Qian had already guessed what he was thinking, but when he heard it with his own ears, he still trembled slightly.
"I'm not afraid of Mr. Yi Ning's jokes." Li Xia added: "I want to try to build a strong Han Dynasty that is not subject to foreign aggression. Then I should not hesitate to kick away some stumbling blocks."
After a long time, Han Qi'an said: "But Alang is still a minister of the Song Dynasty, and the time is not yet ripe. It is not appropriate to kill people and steal wealth in public."
"yes."
"It's easy to kill Zhang Yuanming, but the hard part is how to hide it from others. What's even harder is how to get his property."
"I know." Li Xia said: "This time, I wanted to use the Changning Army as a cover. But seeing that they are upright and rough men, forget it, we should handle this kind of thing ourselves."
"What about Jiuqu Garden?"
"It was me who burned it, not Zhu Cheng. He is dedicated to fighting against Mongolia, so there is no need to let him get involved in this..."