The person left behind by Tong Guan to defend the city in Fuzhou was Yang Yingcheng, deputy commander-in-chief of the two Zhejiang horse infantry armies.
One of Yang Yingcheng's brothers was Yang Yingyan who recognized Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty in Quzhou.
As soon as Tong Guan left Fuzhou City, Yang Yingcheng said to his son Yang Shao: "Go to Min'an Town to contact the Ming army and say that I am willing to surrender Fuzhou City."
"Why didn't father take Tongguan and surrender again?" Yang Shao asked.
Yang Yingcheng shook his head: "He is on guard. I have too few soldiers, and I have to beware of sudden mutinies by the Xiang Army and the New Army."
The military situation in Fujian was extremely complicated. Yang Yingcheng had all Zhejiang soldiers in his hands. At the beginning of the year, he followed Tong Guan to Fujian to suppress bandits.
When these Zhejiang soldiers heard that their hometown had been captured by the Ming army, they all clamored to go back.
Tong Guan was afraid of a mutiny, so he divided the Zhejiang soldiers into three parts.
One was stationed in Tingzhou, and the other was stationed in Jianning to guard against the rebels who had fled into the mountains and then came out. Tong Guan also promised that after he returned to Fuzhou to recruit troops, he would take these two Zhejiang soldiers back to his hometown.
The remaining one was under the command of Xin Xingzong, who had previously followed Shengjie's army to attack Jianzhou.
Yang Yingcheng, as the deputy general manager of the two Zhejiang horse infantry armies, was left with no Zhejiang soldiers. Instead, he commanded 20,000 to 30,000 Fujian Xiang troops and newly recruited rural soldiers.
Tong Guan's current support is five thousand monk soldiers.
He saw that there were temples all over Fujian, so he recruited young monks to join the army. The fewer relatives he had, the more preferential treatment he received. Those with no family members could directly become officers.
Yang Yingcheng was unable to control the troops, and Tong Guan was protected by monk soldiers, so he could only allow him to flee Fuzhou overnight.
"General, we caught a spy who claims to be the son of the Fuzhou guard!"
"bring it here."
The first thing Yang Shao said when he saw Li Bao was: "General, please send troops quickly. Tong Guan has fled with the emperor and officials. The defenders in Fuzhou City may cause a big trouble if they have money but no food."
"Have money but no food?" Li Bao paid no attention to Tong Guan.
Yang Shao explained: "Tong Guan sent troops to plunder maritime merchants and robbed a large amount of goods. When he supported the new king to ascend the throne, he rewarded the soldiers with these goods and took the opportunity to recruit a large number of new soldiers. However, the soldiers received the money, but there was no money in the city.
There is enough food, and now the price of rice has risen to 3,500 yuan per stone!"
Li Bao immediately understood who his enemy was. It was not the escaping Tong Guan, nor the puppet emperor, but tens of thousands of Fujian soldiers who had no food to eat!
Without solving the food problem, Li Bao would never be able to make a living in Fujian, unless he could be like Tong Guan and disregard the life and death of the people.
Fujian has many mountains and little land, and its food output is extremely low. Tong Guan has been suppressing bandits here for more than half a year. He has ordered the collection of military rations several times, and has already collected all the food for the people at the bottom.
Li Bao asked: "Are grain merchants hoarding?"
Yang Shao shook his head.
Tong Guan led his troops to forcibly requisition food, and if he resisted at all, he was accused of being a traitor and killed."
"Where can I get the nearest food?" Li Bao asked again.
"Quanzhou!"
Yang Shao said without thinking: "There has not been a military disaster there yet, and not only the gentry and merchants have food, but there is also a large amount of food accumulated in the temples. Kaiyuan Temple, Shaolin Temple and other temples not only annexed countless lands, but also controlled inland river business, and supplied those seas all year round.
suppliers.”
"Why didn't Tong Guan rob the temple in Quanzhou?" Li Bao asked.
Yang Shao replied: "I heard that Zhejiang and Zhejiang were captured by the Ming Dynasty. Tong Guan also sent thousands of soldiers to Quanzhou to collect grain, but they were beaten back by monk soldiers jointly formed by various temples."
Li Bao was surprised and said: "Tong Guan's soldiers were defeated by the monk soldiers?"
Yang Shao explained: "There are countless temples in Quanzhou, and the largest ones alone have tens of thousands of monks and soldiers in total! In fact, there are more temples in Fuzhou, but Tong Guan's army is here, so they did not dare to resist and took the initiative to provide some food.
Tong Guan stopped robbing and plundering."
Li Bao asked about Yang Shao's situation again and ordered: "Ask your father to appease the soldiers in the city and tell them that military rations will be arriving in the near future. Anyone who dares to rebel will not only be punished by death, but also their family members will not be able to buy food. Also,
Yes, immediately search for river boats, and I will lead troops to pursue Tong Guan!"
Yang Shao was a little embarrassed: "Xin Xingzong took some of the ships outside Fuzhou City when he sent out troops, and Tong Guan took away the rest."
"As much as we can collect!" Li Bao said.
Half an hour later, Li Bao led a thousand people into the city, and follow-up troops were arriving one after another.
Yang Yingcheng admired this very much. He would never dare to enter the city directly. What if the defenders set up an ambush deceitfully?
The reason why Li Bao was so courageous was because he made Song Huizong disappear.
How could Tong Guan be able to control the army in a small and peaceful court that had lost its emperor? There has been no mutiny so far. It can only be said that Tong Guan has two tricks.
Li Bao asked directly: "How many ships did you get?"
Yang Yingcheng said: "There are only twenty or thirty small boats left, and each boat can hold at most a dozen people."
Li Bao asked again: "How many soldiers are there in the city?"
Yang Yingcheng said: "More than thirty-seven thousand, all of them are Xiang troops and newly recruited rural soldiers. Even the bandits cannot defeat them if they are taken out of the city."
Li Bao asked again: "How many temples are there in Fuzhou?"
Yang Yingcheng said: "Three or four hundred seats."
Of course, there are more than 300 or 400, there are 539 formal temples (excluding Taoist temples and obscene rituals). After the male peasants reach adulthood, they run to become monks one after another. Some officials say that one-half of them become monks, and some officials say that three
One part becomes a monk.
Even when Tong Guan formed an army in Fuzhou, he also recruited a large number of monk soldiers. As long as he did not loot temples, the abbot was willing to send monks to join the army.
Li Bao said: "Give me a few locals as guides, and I will immediately lead troops to pursue Tong Guan!"
Yang Yingcheng reminded: "Tong Guan left by boat, and I only collected twenty or thirty small boats."
"That's enough, there are still some river boats in Min'an Town." Li Bao said.
Under Yang Yingcheng's surprised gaze, Li Bao held torches and led the troops to board the ship.
Because there were too few ships, Li Bao only led more than 700 soldiers and only brought a small amount of dry food. He rowed a small boat to chase Tong Guan?
Moreover, he took off all his armor and coat, and only wore a single coat in the winter.
Yang Shao had an expression of admiration on his face: "General Li is such a brave general!"
Yang Yingcheng murmured to himself: "Madman."
In fact, Yang Yingcheng was also quite crazy. Historically, he offered advice to Zhao Gou and wanted to send troops to land in Goryeo on sea ships and go straight into the hinterland of the Jin Kingdom to rescue the two Huiqin sects.
…
On Tongguan's side, there were the emperor and officials, as well as five thousand monks and soldiers, carrying a large amount of goods and grain. The fleet stretched for three or four miles along the Min River.
It's dark at night and the speed is very slow.
By dawn, the ship at the forefront had not even arrived at Baisha Town.
Thousands of monks and soldiers were whispering on the ship. Although most of them had no family members or had long lost contact with their families, this did not mean that they were willing to leave their hometown.
Moreover, the Song Dynasty was about to fall, so why should they be buried with the imperial court?
The reason why there was no immediate mutiny was because the leading monk officers had been bribed by Tong Guan's crazy rewards.
Tong Guan even promised that as long as they arrived in Nanjianzhou, the entire army could plunder for three days.
The sky gradually turns white, and the scenery on both sides of the Minjiang River becomes clearer.
The little puppet emperor behind Tong Guan was held in the arms of a woman. The mother and son sat there shivering.
It's not a clan at all, Tong Guan just got a kid named Zhao to fill the number.
He only asked the Fuzhou garrison to delay for some time so that he could escape smoothly. It would be better if the whole city was in chaos, and the Ming army generals would need to devote their energy to suppressing the rebels.
Tong Guan did not dare to defend Fuzhou at all, because the Xiang army was already showing signs of mutiny. Once the Ming army started to attack, those Fujian Xiang troops were very likely to defect.
Tong Guan said to his soldiers: "I'm going to deliver the order again. When we get to Nanjian Prefecture, the whole army will plunder for three days. Except for the food, which must be handed over, the rest of the wealth can be kept by the women."
The soldier immediately rowed the boat and shouted to the boats along the way: "The Grand Master has an order. When we arrive at Nanjianzhou, the entire army will plunder for three days..."
After hearing this order reiterated, thousands of soldiers were finally safe. Even if some wanted to return to Fuzhou, they planned to rob and then return.
The officials who were taken away by Tong Guan naturally heard these words.
The executioner Xie Ruyi looked angry: "This eunuch, in order to survive for himself, does not care about the lives of thousands of people."
"Well, he has soldiers in his hands, what can we do?" Mao Kui, the transfer envoy, sighed, "We are forced to participate in supporting the new king, and our retreat has been cut off by Tong Guan. Even if we join the new dynasty, we will be punished."
Zhao Qi, the deputy transport envoy, said: "We must find a way to escape. We can find a loophole to escape to the mountains while plundering Nanjianzhou."
Cao Zai, the luck judge, said: "Our family members are all on another boat. If we come to Nanjianzhou, we will be detained by Tong Guan's troops. We may be able to escape, but don't we care about our family's life and death?"
All the officials were silent for a moment.
"Dong dong dong dong dong!"
Suddenly a dull drum sound came from behind.
Xie Ruyi stood up suddenly: "Could it be that the pursuers are coming?"
"Not so fast, right?" Cao Zai muttered.
"kill!"
"Run away!"
In the early morning light of Xi'an, Li Bao led more than 700 soldiers. They didn't even wear armor. They were sitting in small boats and beating drums to kill them.
But Tong Guan plundered all the river boats in Fuzhou. The fleet stretched for three or four miles, had more soldiers than Li Bao, and the boats were taller and taller than Li Bao's boats.
However, no one dares to resist!
When Tong Guan was at the tail of the fleet, he heard the beating of drums and shouts of death. No matter how many pursuers came, they were so frightened that they all approached the shore and tried to escape into the mountains. Some even jumped into the Minjiang River in fear.
Tong Guan was at the front of the fleet. He only knew that the pursuers were coming, but he couldn't figure out what was going on.
He urged the boatman to speed up, but the ships in front of him docked one after another. From time to time, a ship blocked Tong Guan's boat as it sailed to the shore.
Hearing the shouts of killing getting closer and closer, the fleet at the rear became a mess. Tong Guan was so frightened that he shouted: "Get to the shore, hurry up to the shore!"
The group of civil servants were gathered together on a boat, and they were all scared and pale at the moment.
Only the executioner Xie Ruyi shouted to the soldiers guarding him: "Do you want to live? If you want to live, just listen to me!"
The monks and soldiers looked at each other, and suddenly one of them knelt down and said, "Please help me, sir!"
Xie Ruyi said: "Give a message to the nearby ships and tell them that I have received orders from Emperor Zhu of the Ming Dynasty. Anyone who is willing to defect should tear off his left sleeve and come with me to capture the traitor Tong Guan. As long as you defect, you will be exempted. If you perform meritorious service,
, there are many rewards!”
Zhao Kui reminded: "It's too long to remember. Just shout eight words: Capture Tong Guan, there will be many rewards!"
"Yes, there will be huge rewards for capturing Tong Guan!" Xie Ruyi nodded quickly.
"Capture Tong Guan and you will be rewarded!"
"Capture Tong Guan and you will be rewarded!"
"..."
Shouts arose one after another on the Min River. The soldiers who had planned to go to Nanjianzhou to plunder for three days started shouting and regarded Tong Guan as a tool for their promotion and wealth.
Some soldiers who were thinking of escaping to the shore did not run away when they heard the shouting. Instead, they shouted slogans and rushed towards Tong Guan in a boat.
The river became more chaotic, and Li Bao's soldiers were blocked.
But Li Bao was not troubled. He was good at disrupting chaotic battles and was happy to play drums and cheer for the soldiers who defected.