On August 12, the second year of Zhonghe, Li Xiaochang's army from Yifang came eastward and reached Gaoling County to join up with Tielin's army.
"Shao Shuai, the bandit army in Jingyang County has surrendered, and more than five thousand people have been escorted over." Li Xiaochang was indeed very good at doing things and did not take these prisoners privately, which made Shao Shude look at him with admiration.
These days, the generals are almost eager to expand their troops. They want everyone and dare to recruit anyone, regardless of whether they can feed them or not. Li Xiaochang probably was so restrained because he had no land.
“Li Dutong also won a great victory, which is very gratifying.” Shao Shude congratulated with a smile on his face.
"Don't mention this, don't mention this!" Li Xiaochang said with an embarrassed look on his face: "Now who doesn't hear about the Battle of Shengaoyi? The Tielin Army defeated the bandit general Meng Kai and captured and killed more than ten thousand people. As soon as the news came to
In Jingyang, the rebel army surrendered, but the Yifang army did not fire a single shot. This great victory is only in name but in reality, Commander Shao must not cancel it."
The results of the Battle of Shengaoyi are indeed fermenting rapidly and are spreading to the entire Guanzhong. In the past few days, corpses of rebel soldiers have floated down from time to time in the lower reaches of Jingshui and Weishui. This shows how miserable Meng Kai was defeated that day.
.
They were all chased into the river!
Shao Shude's reputation as a ferocious god is now spread throughout the Chao army. Li Tangbin, Zhang Yan, Zhu Wen, Li Xiang, Meng Kai, Chai Cun, Huang Wenjing, there are indeed too many Chao generals who fell into his hands.
If it weren't for the fact that Tielin's army only had 9,000 men and was mainly infantry, and the battle to regain Chang'an was about to begin, Chao's army would definitely be in panic.
“Victory is victory. In the previous battle in the eastern suburbs of Jingyang, wasn’t it just victory? Hundreds of thieves were beheaded.”
"More than 10,000 people attacked the hesitant 6,000 bandit army, but it was only a small victory..." Li Xiaochang smiled bitterly: "If it had been the Tielin Army, the bandit army would have been wiped out on the spot."
"Why should Li Dutong belittle himself?" Shao Shude said with a smile: "If the governor of Ximen knows about this, he will definitely be rewarded."
“I hope so. I don’t want more for you. The four prefectures of Yifang can provide you with a place to stay, and the sergeants can feel at ease.”
The two of them were trying to comfort each other, while the other was worried. At this moment, dozens of horsemen came from the east. They dismounted from afar, walked to Shao Shude, and said, "General Li Xiang has met Marshal Shao."
“General Li fought well this time!” Shao Shude took a quick look and then said with a smile: “With an army of less than 10,000 men, he carried Huang Ye’s 20,000 elite soldiers against the thieves and fought to the death without retreating. This is quite the style of a famous general in ancient times.”
Li Xiang also took a closer look at Shao Shude and felt that he was very young at first sight. Then he sighed to himself: by some strange combination of circumstances, he followed Huang Chao through life and death, and now he has been promoted to the position of governor, and he is not necessarily in the position yet.
It is safe, but he is already the master of four states, which is completely incomparable.
"General Shao's attack on Meng Kai was speechless." Li Xiang sighed: "The court is not sure about this, but in Huang Chao's army, Meng Kai's name is as loud as thunder. The commander defeated this thief.
, I am afraid that no one will dare to fight against Huang Chao in the future."
“Then I’ll take the general’s word for good. If the bandits retreat as soon as they see a certain general’s flag, it will save many casualties among the soldiers.”
Everyone laughed when they heard this.
"Is this General Wang? So majestic! I heard that in this battle to attack Weiqiaocang, he took the lead and killed three thieves. He is really a brave general!" Shao Shude looked at a general behind Li Xiang and asked.
“The surrendered king met the commander-in-chief.” Wang Yu was about to kneel down on one knee.
Shao Shude supported him and said: "You are a warrior, you don't need to kneel to me."
Wang Yu was startled, but he did not hesitate, but said seriously: "I am willing to follow the commander-in-chief to kill the enemy!"
Shao Shude turned his attention to Li Xiang.
Li Xiang smiled and said: "Wang Sanlang prides himself on being brave, and he is almost invincible in a certain camp. For that matter, Marshal Shao might as well just accept him, give him ten generals and deputy generals, and let him see how many heroes there are in the world.
"
"Shao likes warriors the most. Now that he has won General Wang, I should buy wine to congratulate him." After saying that, he immediately sent an order to Wei Boqiu to go and handle it.
Everyone was chatting and laughing all the way, and soon entered the camp. Shao Shude didn't want to live in Gaoling County anymore. He was almost turned into a ghost by the people in the camp, and he felt uncomfortable.
“Does Marshal Shao know that Wang Chongrong has led his army to the west?” As soon as he sat down, Li Xiang said: “He and Zhu Wen have 30,000 troops and have arrived at Pan County. They will arrive near Chang’an in the near future.”
"I don't know this." Shao Shude said: "It seems that the imperial court is gathering troops and horses. There are fifty thousand troops in the west camp, twenty thousand in the south, thirty thousand in the north, and another thirty thousand in the east. This is
130,000 people. It's almost enough for a field battle, but if the nest bandits insist on defending the city, they won't be able to stop it."
Of course Shao Shude knew that troops from Guandong and Shuzhong were entering Guanzhong in large numbers. Tens of thousands of troops had arrived in three months. Looking at the current trend, tens of thousands of troops would probably come over in the next few months. The imperial court wanted to complete its efforts.
After a battle, the saint's patience to regain Chang'an is probably running out.
"Huangchao is short of food." Li Xiang, as an insider, is of course very aware of the actual situation in Chang'an. He just heard him say: "It may be able to hold on for now. After all, Chang'an, Wannian, Xianyang, Lantian, Zhaoying, Weinan, and Yueyang
The county just finished harvesting a crop of grain a few months ago. But there are more than 100,000 people in the nest, and I heard that they are recruiting soldiers to join the army recently. There are so many sergeants and the army is short of food, it will definitely not last half a year."
Shao Shude nodded when he heard this. If the siege cannot be broken externally and there is a lack of food internally, then Chang'an cannot stay. According to Chao's army's rogue habits, someone must have suggested developing elsewhere. Even if Huang Chao does not want to leave the palace in Chang'an, he cannot disobey it.
Due to the will of the people, the retreat of the entire army is inevitable, unless the official army can be defeated and the grain production bases in the surrounding counties can be recaptured.
"Huang Chao has been stealing a fake account for several years, and he must be reluctant to part with the majesty of the emperor. I guess he will have to fight, otherwise how can he be willing to do so."
"What the commander said is true." Li Xiang replied: "We are preparing for a deadly battle. We just don't know how many days of peace we can enjoy after this battle."
"It all depends on human effort." Shao Shude said: "I'm not afraid of General Li's jokes. Shao once had an ideal, which was to bring peace to the world so that the people would have enough food and clothing, and not worry about being harmed by thieves."
Li Xiang shook his head when he heard this. These words can also deceive people like Wang Yu. He has traveled far and wide. How can one person change the world? However, he still said: "Li Mou admires the ambition of the commander-in-chief.
In today's world, there are many people like flies and dogs, but there are very few people like the commander-in-chief. You should drink this cup to the full."
“Drink this cup to the full.”
******
Li Xiang only stayed in Gaoling for one day, and then returned to the Weiqiao town camp. Shao Shude's order to him was to stick to the camp. If Huang Chao left, the East Wei Bridge was a route and had to be guarded against.
After Li Xiang left, Zhuge Shuang led his troops south for a tour.
Shao Shude felt that he was becoming more and more Buddhist. He almost felt like lying down and waiting for others to destroy Huang Chao. Is this the legendary lying down? But after thinking about it, I understand. At the Marshal’s age, what else is there to pursue?
The credit has been enough, and the place has been established, so why take any more risks?
After defeating Meng Kai, the Tielin Army ushered in a period of idleness. It seemed unsafe to take the initiative to attack the more than 100,000 Chao Army in the south, and the Chao Army no longer crossed the river to go north, and the situation became deadlocked.
No one can do anything to the monks in the camp on the west side. The fight there is just a mess, and it has basically stopped for now. Shao Shude is too lazy to care about other people. There were many casualties in the last battle, resulting in a vacancy of sergeants. Recently, there are vacancies in Guanzhong
Many people came to join the army with their troops, and they just took them in to replenish the troops, and then they trained diligently.
By the way, these people in Guanzhong came to join the army after hearing that Shao Shude killed the generals of Chao Army and punished the people. Now Marshal Shao has a very good reputation in this area, at least it is much better than the image of those vassal towns that cannot be supported by mud.
Already.
Until the end of October, a full three months had passed, and Huang Chao showed no sign of a large-scale attack. This group of people really did not want to make progress. It had been almost two years since they invaded Chang'an, and their territory had not expanded at all, and they had no long-term strategic plan.
It seems like just living one day at a time.
How can I be able to secure the throne in this way? After a while, even the emperors of several counties may not be able to secure their throne.
On the eighth day of November, Wang Duo, the commander-in-chief of the capital, arrived in Huazhou from Hezhong Prefecture, taking with him more than 20,000 soldiers who had recently arrived from Henan.
On the tenth day of November, Li Keyong led more than 17,000 people to Tongzhou.
On November 12, another 6,000 soldiers from Hebei arrived in Guanzhong.
Wang Shizhong made a rough calculation and found that there were 170,000 or 80,000 troops in the imperial court, and the time for a decisive battle seemed ripe.
In order to encourage the soldiers to fight, Wang Shizhong petitioned the imperial court to issue a new round of rewards to the main generals.
In December, the imperial court approved Wang Duo’s report.
Shao Shude didn't care about other people. He only cared about Li Keyong and Zhu Wen. Among them, Li Keyong was named the Yanmen Jiedushi and the Xindai Observer. To put it bluntly, he handed over Xin and Dai Erzhou to Li Keyong.
Zhu Wen moved to the town of Xuanwu, but he could not take up his post yet. The court made it very clear, "As soon as Chang'an is conquered, he will be ordered to go to the town." In other words, at this time, Zhu Wen still had to take his more than 10,000 troops to fight with the enemy.
Huangchao spell.
As a "star-level" general who defeated several bandit armies, Shao Shude was granted the title of envoy to Xia Sui, Yinyou, Jiedu, etc. for observation and disposal, and envoy to the feudal vassal, to pacify Pingxia Dangxiang envoy, to oversee Yinchuan, and to serve as the governor of Xiazhou. This was considered to be a complete restoration.
Now he can be properly called "Shuai Shao".
By the way, Shao Shude now also serves as the deputy commander of the northern camp, in charge of the frontline Xia Sui Army, Yifang Army and Huangchao's surrendered army Li Xiang's 30,000 people. The court has noticed it, and now Zhuge Shuang basically doesn't care, so it is better to let Xiang
Those who fight, fight well.
On December 20th, Yi Ding's army and Zhongwu's army each arrived in Guanzhong with 4,000 troops. Li Keyong's subsequent 30,000 troops also arrived in Hezhong and Tongzhou.
On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, the sage distributed a reward and was given three pieces of money and two bolts of silk. On the same day, the king's attendants ordered that the armies should gather from all sides and advance towards Chang'an.
It was already the 28th when Shao Shude received the order, and the Tielin Army had long been prepared to mobilize the entire army. Thinking about it carefully, it seemed that there was nothing more that should be done. Two months ago, Liu Zijing had already led 500 auxiliary troops.
Escorting food and goods, 5,000 Chao soldiers and more than 1,000 households in Guanzhong went to Suizhou. Li Renjun rushed back before the war. Now the entire army has 8,500 people, with sufficient food, grass, and equipment, and the sergeants are in good spirits and can fight.
That’s it!
On the morning of the 28th, the Tielin Army moved south in batches, with the target: Dongwei Bridge.
The sergeants were in high spirits. It was almost the last battle. After the battle, they could go home with their belongings. How happy they were!