The bloody human head hangs above the city gate, which is shocking to look at.
This is She County, Luzhou. In theory, it has nothing to do with Hebei, but because of its key geographical location, it is actually a more important chess piece than the city.
To put it simply, start from Shangdang County in Luzhou, go all the way northeast, forty miles to Lucheng County (Spring and Autumn Red Di Luzi Kingdom). Then go northeast for more than a hundred miles, pass through Licheng County to Wu'er Valley.
, that is, the ancient Hu Pass. After leaving the valley, it is thirty-five miles to Shexian County.
The southeast of She County can reach Fuyang County, Lisuo, Cizhou.
Northeast of She County can reach Wu'an County, Cizhou.
Basically, Shexian County is the main road leading out of the Taihang Mountains to Xingmingci. Therefore, most of the military rations from the three states in the east of Zhaoyi to aid the west are stored here.
The terrain in the mountains is steep and there are many people who can build passes. However, since Zhaoyi Town has also taken over the five states of Ze, Lu, Xingming and Ci, many passes have been abandoned. Passes need to constantly spend money to maintain. If there is no demand, they will naturally be gradually abandoned.
Already.
When Shao Shude extended his hand into Heyang, Li Keyong felt nervous and mobilized people to cut down trees, ram soil, bake bricks, quarry stones, and tidy up the fortresses at Baixing and Taihangxing.
After the Cixi War, the fortresses of Lan and Shi were also renovated, and they have been completed one after another.
After the capture of Xiangwei last year, the three prefectures of Xingmingci became the front line. An Jinjun, the regiment commander of the three prefectures, received an order from Jinyang to repair the pass around Fukouxing.
Ordinarily, if one had money, one would build a checkpoint on each of these roads and send troops to guard it. But Hedong was still poor, so Wuergu was chosen in the end, that is, the ancient Hu Pass was rebuilt to guard the line leading to Wu'an and Handan.
Avenue. On this avenue, Shexian and Huguan are in front of each other, which is a double insurance. This road was called Huguan in the Han Dynasty, Fukouxing in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Guokou in the Guo Dynasty, and Wuergu Road.
.
As for the road from the southeast to Fuyang, because it is smaller and more rugged and difficult to navigate, we simply ignored it and retreated the defense line to the Shexian area to save troops.
The city walls of Shexian County have been renovated, and Hu Pass has also been completed. Li Keyong was well aware of the importance of Zelu Prefecture to Hedong, so he appointed his second son Li Cunxu as the envoy of Cilu Pass to command all troops.
Sixteen-year-old Li Cunxu got his first chance to stand alone.
But this was also a challenge. Because apart from allocating some 3,000 veterans of the Jin army and Shatuo Fan soldiers to him, Li Keyong had no other support. Instead, he gave Li Han's troops to his son.
Li Hanzhi had died of illness for several months, leaving behind more than 8,000 soldiers and horses, commanded by General Zhang Yuande. Li Keyong dumped them to his son, which was very simple and rude - if his son did not have the ability to subdue these soldiers and horses, then
It's his own business.
However, after all, he was his most valued son. After much deliberation, Li Key asked Zhou Dewei to recruit 5,000 new soldiers in Cizhou, and moved his family to Luzhou, under Li Cunxu's command.
Zhou Dewei failed in Pu County last year and was defeated, so he had to assist Li Cunxu. But he is Li Keyong's favorite general and will make a comeback sooner or later. At present, it is just a transition to avoid the limelight.
There were more than 16,000 soldiers and horses in total. Li Cunxu organized them into an army, named "Silver Spear Rebellion Army", and appointed himself as military envoy. Zhang Yuande and Zhou Dewei were his assistants to guard the key pass of Ci and Lujian.
Although Li Cunxu was young, he was also a ruthless man. The first thing he did after taking office was to strictly enforce military discipline. To this end, he killed more than ten soldiers and generals who did not respect orders. Later, he sent Cangjing Lu Yanweigang away
Some of the goods that had arrived were distributed, various regulations were read out, and military discipline was observed.
"These soldiers are only temporarily tolerant. If they want to truly conquer them, the military envoys will have to spend more time." Zhou Dewei followed Li Cunxu and said softly.
In Wu'er Valley, various units of the Silver Spear Rebel Army are conducting drills.
In fact, except for the 5,000 Cizhou recruits, most of them are veterans. The significance of the drill, in addition to the so-called "reviewing the past and learning the new", has a greater role in training the obedience of the sergeants in order to better restrain the troops.
"Are you afraid of Shao Shude?" Li Cunxu put his hand on the handle of the knife, his eyes never leaving his "capital".
Zhou Dewei: "..."
"Haha, I know even if you don't tell me." Li Cunxu said disapprovingly: "In the early years, your Excellency went out to Hedong to attack Weibo and Chengde. You can go and leave whenever you want. When did you build Guancheng? Huguan has been built for hundreds of years since the Dezong Dynasty was rebuilt.
The town continues to deteriorate. Your Excellency took control of Hedong and ignored it. If Shude soldiers had not come to defend it, this place would still be a run-down town and nothing would change."
"Your Majesty built Hu Pass to collect taxes from passing business travelers." Zhou Dewei argued feebly.
Yes, in addition to the military role of Guancheng, another major function is to collect taxes.
Most of these cities were built in difficult terrain, and they were the only way to collect taxes on merchants. Previously, Li Hanzhi controlled Zelu, and An Jinjun controlled Xing Mingci. These two eldest brothers had no money and were under their control.
When you are scrapping the land or going out to plunder, you have never properly sorted out your business taxes.
Because of the military pressure brought by Shao Shude, Li Keyong ordered the repair of Huguan and the collection of commercial taxes to raise troops. It has to be said to be a dark humor - is it okay to force progress?
"Okay, okay!" Li Cunxu waved his hand and said: "My family knows their own affairs. On the grassland in the north, Yunzhou has been surrounded again. There are also bandits in Lanzhou, fighting Zhenglie. Even Yanbei
In the grasslands, there are large groups of herdsmen driving their cattle and sheep southward, tossing in Wei, Xin, Yi, Gui and other places. Cixi bandit soldiers are also tentatively heading north, and Kangdu feels like facing a formidable enemy. Troops are needed everywhere, Xing Mingci
How many people are there?”
Yes, the Rouzhou camp was reorganized. If Cixi's side was just pretending to attack, Daibei was serious about it.
Because of the capture of Daibei last year, the Khitan gained a lot. In addition, Qibi, Zangcai and other tribes obtained new pastures. The Tibetan tribes were very active and enthusiastically sent troops. Before the middle of May, 50,000 Tibetan soldiers were gathered to Rouzhou.
Listen to orders.
Still with the three armies of Iron Cavalry, Feilong and Xinquan as the core, a total of more than 80,000 people. After the pastures turned green, they pulled carts and drove cattle and sheep, and drove to Daibei in a mighty manner. The first thing they did was to disperse in Yunzhou
Look around for possible enemies.
In addition, a partial division was also divided to attack Xinyi Gui and other places, sweep away Li Cunxiao's territory, plunder the remaining tribes and people, and further worsen his survival situation.
However, Yanbei will probably not be able to gain anything from fighting Daibei, and it will just be a loss-making business.
If nothing else goes wrong, and if no one holds down Lao Yang's head, I'm afraid a large number of cavalry will flood into the Khitan territory to burn, kill, and loot to recover their losses.
Hedong did not want to care about the affairs on the Khitan territory and could not control them. Their focus was still on the three eastern states of Zhaoyi.
There are actually not many troops stationed in Xing Mingci, because Jinyang did not send a few people here at all. The larger ones are only the Fifth Academy Army Anjin Department, the Guards Jin Qiang Zhi Murong Teng Department, and the Huang Jia Army Shi Jun Li Department in front of the hall. This
The three troops are considered to be permanently stationed in Xingmingci, with a total of more than 20,000 infantry and cavalry.
The three prefecture armies combined totaled more than 10,000 people, plus the foster children that Li Keyong brought there personally, and they overran the second army, totaling more than 40,000 people. They had been defeated by the Xia army once before, but now they only had about 40,000 people.
With such a small number of troops, the Xia people could not attack across the Fu River without attacking with all their strength, otherwise the situation would be worrying.
"By the way, Shao Shude made a lot of noise this time. How many troops did he mobilize?" Li Cunxu asked again.
Zhou Dewei pondered for a while and said: "Based on the information that has been found so far, the Xia people have the Jinglue Army and the Xiaojie Army on the right side of the two states of Xiangwei, and a part of the Tianxiong Army stationed in Heyang has also come over.
It’s over 50,000.”
"In addition to these three armies, Weizhou sent people to report. They captured two Xia Army rangers and learned that they were from the Wuwei Army. This was another 30,000 horsemen."
"In the direction of Heyang, our army's rangers went south to spy and discovered the passing army, but could not figure out the number. I boldly guessed that most of this army came from Luoyang, and its strength was less than 15,000, or as many as 30,000.
"
"The news that Shao Thief has arrived in Weizhou has been confirmed. He just defeated Yang Xingmi in Huaibei. This time he led his army north. How many people came?"
Having said this, Zhou Dewei glanced at Li Cunxu and said in a deep voice: "The general will make a bold guess that the total number of Xia troops gathered to defend each other will eventually be between 130,000 and 150,000. In addition, we have not yet figured out who they are.
How many native regiments have been recruited? Maybe there will be no less than 100,000 people in this group. This force will be very huge."
Li Cunxu was a little frightened when he heard this, and cursed angrily: "In the past, Zhu Quanzhong liked to bully the small soldiers with more soldiers, and Shao Shude also liked to bully others with more soldiers, which was very boring. If he is really a man
, everyone sends out 40,000 troops each, finds a place in the wilderness, and has a battle of life and death. No one should run away. In this way, even if the army is defeated and he or she is defeated, he will not regret it."
This is the angry talk of a child.
There are so many factors that determine victory or defeat. Sometimes if you are unlucky, a strong wind can defeat you like a mountain. Why would Shao Shude fight this kind of battle with you?
"Does father know how many soldiers Shao has?" Li Cunxu suddenly felt worried and asked.
Zhou Dewei smiled and said: "Your Majesty has been using the army for many years and is well versed in battle formations. How could you not know this? You, the military envoy, have been appointed as the interceptor envoy at Cilu Pass. You should be able to get a glimpse of the true meaning."
"It turns out that father is really scared. I didn't believe it before." Li Cunxu sighed.
Zhou Dewei: "..."
"Actually, it's nothing." Li Cunxu said with a smile: "Knowing yourself and the enemy is the basis for using troops. At this time, the Xia soldiers are overwhelming and the situation is unclear. It is wrong to act rashly, and it will be a disaster for Wei Bo."
Zhou Dewei nodded, but he actually didn't agree. It's just that he is cautious by nature and doesn't like to talk nonsense about things he is unsure about. Xia Bing must have gone to fight Wei Bo? If he really thinks so, it is not unjust to suffer a big loss next.
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Shao Shude is also a veteran in the army. How can he not know the virtues of Wei Bo's warriors?
If he sent a small number of troops to defend Wei Bo and a hundred thousand main force to go north, forcefully cross the Fu River and attack Cizhou, Zhou Dewei would not be surprised at all, and I believe the King of Jin would not be surprised either.
Eliminating the most stubborn and capable Hedong forces should be Shao Shude's first priority. He doesn't even aim to occupy land, he just wants to eliminate Hedong's elite soldiers, undermine Hedong's morale, and undermine Hedong's will to resist. For this purpose, he will use any means
Use it.
On Wei Bo's side, if you let go, people may not necessarily rush over to fight you.
After all, the alliance is an alliance, not a family, and it is possible to defeat them individually.