On March 12, Shao Shude arrived outside Zhenzhou City.
He first listened to the reports of the generals in the camp, and then, under the protection of Xia Ruqi, observed the city from a distance.
Wuwei, Tielin, and Konghe armies besieged Zhenzhou, but this siege was actually watery, at least Nancheng was not able to be surrounded.
One mile south of Zhenzhou is the Hutuo River, which winds four miles to the east, and there is the Zhongdu Bridge, which served as the great north-south post road. In the third year of Kaiyun, the Khitan went south to the Hutuo River, where Du Chongwei secretly planned to surrender.
Stationed near Zhongdu Bridge was the Hubei Daozhou Army.
Shao Shude went to the camp for a tour. He had never seen the original appearance of this army, but from the current look, it looked pretty good.
The camp is neat and organized. The sergeants are meticulous in their patrols, and all the rules are extremely strict and well executed.
If local troops can achieve this level, that's fine.
Lu Huaizhong said that the Chu soldiers were not like this when they first arrived. They were loose and unsightly. This further strengthened Shao Shude's view. All units still need to train more.
The main force of the Wuwei Army was stationed on the south bank of the Hutuo River. A small number of elite troops crossed the river to the north and guarded several small villages on the other side of the river to protect the pontoon bridges erected on the river.
When attacking the city, the army passed through the pontoon in sequence, formed up on the north bank, and then attacked.
Overall it's still very troublesome, so Nancheng has never been the focus of the attack.
After seeing the south city, he went to the east of the city, where the Tielin Army was stationed.
"You guys have changed a lot. Fu Qing is very capable." Shao Shude said with emotion as he looked at the sergeants who had just withdrawn.
When the emperor comes, he always has to show off. The Tielin Army has just summoned more than 3,000 people and led thousands of Huaihai Daozhou soldiers to launch a fierce offensive from the east of the city.
"It's thanks to His Majesty's blessing," Fu Cunshen replied.
"What's the explanation?" Shao Shude asked.
"I have eradicated long-standing shortcomings in the Tielin Army, employed men boldly, and strictly enforced military discipline. Without His Majesty's control, I would not have been able to do it," Fu Cunxen said sincerely.
To the 25,000 men in the Tielin Army, Fu Cunshen was an outsider.
The seniority of Zuo Xiang is very old, which can be traced back to the Tielindu era. Although there were not many people there at that time, it did not prevent the soldiers from bragging about their military history and naturally developed a arrogant attitude.
The people in the right compartment thought that they were recruited by the saint personally from Shen, Guang, and Shou, and together with the saint they fought against the Huai bandits Zhu Yanshou. Although there were originally tens of thousands of people, not many of them can be found now, but there are more than ten thousand in the right compartment.
The soldiers were indeed quite proud.
All in all, the Tielin Army regards itself as the emperor's personal army, although the emperor now likes to run to the Tianxiong Army.
With such a force, it is indeed not easy for the airborne envoys to carry out their work. Therefore, what Fu Cunxen said is right. Without Shao Shude's strong support, he really would not be able to do so many things.
Of course, then again, the Tielin Army at this time had only existed for more than 20 years, and it had not yet reached the stage of being close to the party. What's more, when the Great Xia Forbidden Army replenished new recruits, it did not recruit directly from the children of the Forbidden Army.
, that is to say, there are not many cases of sons inheriting their father’s legacy.
Among the four new recruits’ courtyards, if we say that Shaanxi Province is filled with a large number of children of the Forbidden Army, Lingzhou, Yunzhou, and Weizhou are not. Especially the latter. Weizhou is a small place, how can it maintain a population of 20,000 to 30,000 people?
A large-scale system of in-training recruits? To put it bluntly, it is very simple. They recruited a large number of Tibetan, Qiang, and Dangxiang soldiers for admission to training. After training, they sent five to six thousand qualified recruits to Luoyang every year and distributed them to various ministries as supplementary troops.
If it is not an army where sons inherit their father's legacy, the problem of pro-party clinging is not that serious.
Shao Shude once read a report in later generations. The author praised the Imperial Guards of the Northern Song Dynasty, saying that they had a very "superior" system, that is, the positions of the Imperial Guards were not hereditary on the surface but were recruited, but in fact they were hereditary because most of the recruits were Imperial Guards.
The children have an iron rice bowl, security, and a sense of security...
Shao Shude didn't take it seriously.
He also felt that the Hu people were servile, hierarchical, and had a strong sense of superiority and inferiority, so they were more suitable to serve as soldiers.
But nothing should be taken to extremes. There will be problems if there are too many Tibetan soldiers, and clinging to the pro-party is also a problem. It is best to maintain appropriate liquidity and adopt a compromise strategy.
After turning south and east, Shao Shude went to the west and north to look around. More than 100,000 people of all kinds surrounded Zhenzhou and attacked repeatedly.
I tried water attack, but due to terrain issues, the effect was not very good.
The tunnels are still being dug, one is currently blocked by the defenders, and the other two have not yet been discovered.
Various siege equipment were used in turn, and almost all the woods outside Zhenzhou City were cut down. As the equipment continued to be damaged, they were now looking for woods farther away.
After returning to Nancheng, Shao Shude met with the generals and soldiers of the Wuwei Army, gave them a few words of condolences and refreshed his sense of presence, and then seriously discussed the current situation with Lu Huaizhong.
"Your Majesty, the thief actually made a condition, but it was too ridiculous, so I rejected it," Lu Huaizhong said.
"Let's talk and listen." It's just a city like this. Shao Shude was a little anxious. He didn't mind hearing the other party's conditions.
Lu Huaizhong glanced at Shao Shude. There were some conditions that the saint would never agree to before. Now he is impatient?
"In the first month of the first month, Wang Rong sent the judge Zhou Shi to discuss, please keep Chengde Town." Lu Huaizhong said: "I refused, broke his army at Zhongdu Bridge, and advanced to the city. As the armies arrived, the Wan Sheng Huangtou Army also participated.
The Zhao people were so frightened by the attack that they did not dare to leave the city to fight. After more than a month of siege, the thieves sent people out of the city to negotiate, saying that there were still "30,000" soldiers in the city.
General De is in charge of the school and is stationed in Zhenzhou."
"Thirty thousand soldiers?" Shao Shude smiled and said: "There are really 30,000 warriors. I am not worried anymore. There are still so many people in the city. Even if the Zhao people are good at guarding and have enough food and grass, they will not be able to eat for long."
"Yes. I also think it is absolutely impossible. It would be good to have half of the defenders. The rest may be temporarily recruited men. When the offensive is urgent, a group will be recruited, and when the offensive is not urgent, each will return to his home." Lu Huaizhong said.
.
"Compared with the meeting in the first month, the conditions for Zhao Renkai seem to have been lowered a lot." Shao Shude added: "At that time, we had to keep the vassal town, but now we just need to be the imperial army. People, you still have to be beaten.
Only then did he realize he was afraid. If it didn't hurt, he wouldn't give up."
"Your Majesty, I think I cannot agree to Zhao's conditions. If I agree to him, will the Pinglu Army, Hengye Army, Youguo Army, Weisheng Army and even the Yuanbian Army make a noise?" Lu Huaizhong said: "If they also
If you follow the example of the Zhao people and raise troops to occupy the city, if you cause trouble, there will never be peace."
"You are right to worry." Shao Shude sighed: "There are tens of thousands of people from Hedong watching. If you become soft-hearted now, it will cause endless harm."
If the Hengye army returns from Yingzhou and the Pinglu army takes Xuzhou and rebels, what will you do? Recruit them, the court will be embarrassed and the morale will be ruined. Send out troops to conquer, they will loot the wilderness and Yingcheng will defend itself.
It won't work if there are too few people going there, but it will be expensive if there are more people going there, and if it is delayed for a long time, the cost will be even greater.
Many of the Yuanbian Suppression Army were formed by surrendered troops. Will they follow suit? The possibility is not small.
The Great Xia Forbidden Army is powerful, but when you are exhausted from running around suppressing rebellions, your morale will decrease. What's more, there is a big hidden danger, that is, the Forbidden Army will rebel.
Sometimes when you take a step back, you step back step by step until there is no bottom line.
Zhu Quanzhong took a step back in history, and the result was that in addition to the basic base of Henan, there were a bunch of vassal military envoys in Hezhong, Hebei, Jianghan, and Guanzhong.
What if he had been ruthless and refused to back down? It seems that his life span is not long enough.
Xuzhou fought for several years, annihilating more than 100,000 Xuzhou troops successively. However, before and after the Chao Rebellion, the number of Xuzhou troops was only 30,000...
I can only blame him for being born in the wrong era.
"Your Majesty!" Chu Shenping suddenly came over and reported: "The judge of the Chengde shogunate, Zhou Shi, requested an audience."
"You saw me coming!" Shao Shude and Lu Huaizhong looked at each other and said, "Let him come over."
Only a moment later, Zhou Shi was ushered in.
"See King Xia." Zhou Shi saluted.
Shao Shude didn't care about his title and just asked: "Wang Rong is not an ignorant person. Does he know the consequences of continuing to guard it?"
Zhou Shi seemed to have expected to be asked this question. He sighed slightly and said, "I would like to teach King Xia that my lord can't help himself. The soldiers are unruly and the crowd is fierce. If it weren't for the Wang family's five generations and six
For the sake of being handsome, I have already rushed into the Jiedushi Palace."
"Then what are you here for?" Shao Shude asked curiously: "Would you like to say hello in advance? Do you want me to see that he is willing to surrender and not blame him?"
Zhou Shi was not surprised when Shao Shude spoke so directly, and continued: "Wang Shuai sent me here to ask King Xia to postpone the attack on the city for the sake of the people in Hebei. Wang Shuai knew the ambition of King Xia, and there are still many vassal towns in Jiangnan that have not yet been launched.
If there is peace, all we need to do is recruit Zhao soldiers as the imperial army. Then we will work hard and be the king of Xia to attack Huainan, Wuyue, Jiangxi, Hunan and other towns."
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Shao Shude suddenly hit the case and said: "There is only one possibility for Zhao Bing to become the Forbidden Army, that is, to immediately leave the city and surrender. I may select some strong men to join the Forbidden Army. It is absolutely impossible for them to become an organized force."
He is the only one who believes in the words of these feudal warriors!
How did Li Cunxu end up? He collected too many surrendered soldiers. These soldiers were obedient at first, but after a long time, it became difficult to get them to move. The martial arts men of Weibo were nestled in Weibo, and the soldiers of Xingzhou were nestled in Xingzhou.
If you don't get what you want, take the city and rebel.
I believe you as a ghost!
"Does Judge Zhou know about Jinyang?" Shao Shude asked again.
Zhou Shi was silent.
Jin soldiers participated in the siege. He knew this, and had caused an uproar in the city. Many people actually knew in their hearts that they were the last vassal town in the north still resisting, and were in an isolated and helpless situation. The only option was to surrender.
The end is death.
But the warriors were too gambling and too greedy. They even wanted to negotiate terms, but there was nothing he could do.
"I know a little bit about it," Zhou Shi replied helplessly.
"Then go back!" Shao Shude said angrily: "I am only forty-nine this year. Even if my beard turns white, I still have to pull it out of Zhenzhou. If Wang Rong doesn't want to die, he can follow Liang Huaijin's story. That's all.
Go back and send the message."
Shao Shude knew that not only Chengde Wufu, but also Wang Rong had not completely made up his mind.
Now there is a tug of war between the two sides, not only on the battlefield, but more of a psychological tug of war.
"Send an order to dig three trenches outside Zhenzhou City, build a wall, destroy the Zhongdu Bridge, and stop traffic." Shao Shude ordered: "Soldiers and horses from all ministries will take turns to attack day and night."
Who doesn't know how to apply extreme pressure? He has already figured it out and cannot give in just because he is impatient. He has gone through the first ninety-nine steps, but at the last step, his emotions fluctuated. This is not what he should be.
He has actually seen through Zhao Bing's hypocrisy. If they can lower the conditions once, they can lower them twice.
