If you ask me what is the most pleasant thing in the cold winter months, it is of course boiling a pot of wine, drinking and laughing with friends, reminiscing about the past, and looking forward to the future.
Of course, that was a peaceful time. In the late Tang Dynasty, when wars were frequent, this seemed very luxurious. If you want to continue to maintain this so-called quiet time, you don’t know how much you have to pay, or how many people will bear the price for you.
Naturally, the Tiande army on the expedition to Hedong did not receive such treatment. Lan and Shi Erzhou were reluctant to provide them with food and supplies. As for wine and meat, it was not that they didn’t have it, but it was really very little, and it was not enough to fill their teeth. At this moment, the Tiande army
, they could only stay in various camps in the city, shivering against the severe cold weather, waiting for the unpredictable war to come.
"A few of the auxiliary soldiers who went out to collect firewood failed to come back yesterday. Dutou sent people out to investigate and found traces of blood and fighting. They must have been attacked by someone. It seems that Li Thief and his son have turned their attention here again.
Lan and Shi Erzhou are their targets in the next stage, and our Zhelu Army City will bear the brunt." After adding some dry firewood to the fire, Ren Yuji said worriedly.
In fact, the primary target of the Datong rebels going south should be Jinyang, a great city in the world. After all, Hedong has a large population and rich products. It is one of the three most famous towns in the world. In the past, the prime minister usually led Jiedu from afar.
Envoy. The full name of Hedong Jiedu envoy is "Hedong Jiedu, observing and handling, adhering to the envoys of various tribes in Beishan Mountain, and also serving as Taiyuan Yin, staying in the northern capital". He leads Taiyuan Prefecture, Shi, Lan, Fen, Qin, Liao, Xin, and Dai.
There are seven states and one prefecture in total, and Duandi is a famous and wealthy place in the north.
Li Guochang and his son were entrenched in Daibei, leading the three states of Yun, Wei, and Shuo, and supported 20 to 30,000 troops. They seemed to be arrogant, but if they could not occupy the east of the river, then over time, they would only be defeated. The reason is also very simple.
It cannot be supported financially, unless the Shatuo Three Divisions and the Northern Five Divisions sell livers and kidneys to support their supplies and equipment, but they are afraid of the imperial court and dare not do so for the time being.
Of course, the imperial court also knew the goals of the Li family and his son, so they accumulated heavy troops in Xindai and Daizhou. The Yanmen Pass, an important transportation road connecting the Xindai Basin and Shuozhou, also strengthened its defenses, making it difficult for the rebels to return to the same situation as when the rebellion first broke out.
That way, they went deep into Xindai and looted supplies. In order to win over the morale of the army, Li Keyong also acquiesced in allowing the soldiers to burn, kill, loot and burn down the city in Tanglin County and Guo County in Daizhou. Now it seems that this is a serious matter.
Wrong. Xin, the people of Dai already knew who the rebels were, so they resisted fiercely and were very supportive of the imperial officers and soldiers stationed there. As a result, Li Guochang and his son's attempts to go south failed many times, and they found it difficult to advance in the Daizhou area.
If the Daizhou defense line cannot be broken through, then it is better to make a flanking detour. Head from Shuozhou to Caochengchuan, rest and replenish supplies here, and then go south to attack Kelan's army and plunder Lan and Shi Erzhou. Of course, grabbing some goods is only the next step.
After defeating Kelan's army, Lanzhou's elite main force was completely lost. The remaining soldiers absolutely did not have the courage to stop the Datong rebels. So, using Lanzhou as the base, they headed east via Loufanjianmu City, Gujiao City, and Qianzhu Valley to arrive.
Yangqu County, the outer barrier of Jinyang, is not difficult. This can be regarded as a kind of flanking detour. Along the way, the imperial army is weak and the materials are abundant. Food, grass, war horses, gold and silver are readily available. If we take the opportunity to capture the empty Jinyang, then
Great things can be decided!
The officers and generals who camped in the north of Daibei were certainly not fools. In September, when the Li family and his son attacked Kelan's army, Cao Xiang personally led his army to help, which shows how seriously he attached great importance to it. But somehow, the rebels suddenly gave up on Kelan.
The Lan army did not fight, but sneaked for more than ten miles to Honggu, where they set up an ambush and defeated the troops of Hedong and Zhongwu towns led by Cao Xiang. However, Marshal Cao was also a veteran general and was defeated but not defeated. He still organized his troops to tightly defend Lanzhou.
, the front line of Loufan left the rebels with nothing to do and could not defeat any place. Seeing that the situation in Yuzhou was tight, the father and son combined their efforts and had no choice but to abandon this roundabout plan and return to Daizhou with the main force to intimidate the court officials.
After the army, he went east to Yuzhou to face the enemy.
After fighting hard for two months in Yuzhou, due to the absent-mindedness of Youzhou Town and the "match-fixing" of Anqing Governor Shi Jingcun, Sage Governor Mi Haiwan, and Shatuo Governor Li Youjin from the three Shatuo tribes, the situation in Weizhou quickly turned from danger to safety.
Li Guochang and his son planned a major event and personally led the main force to Daizhou. After the official army failed to attack in the south, they gave up. They really couldn't attack the front, so they made a decisive decision and marched westward to Shuozhou again, planning to repeat their old tricks and attack
Lan, Shi Erzhou.
Shao Shude doesn't know where the main force of the rebels is now, but Caochengchuan is the only way and the best way to go. From Ningwu County southward, take Loufanling (Note 1), Fu Rongcheng (Note 2), Jingle
County (Note 3) arrived at Loufanjian Mucheng (Note 4). The circuitous route is actually not as good as the one to the west because of the rugged mountains and difficult roads. Therefore, when heading south from Daibei to Taiyuan, in addition to taking the Xindai Basin,
Unexpectedly, they had no choice but to take a detour through Lanzhou. The Tiande army was defending the Zhelu Army City, and they really had nowhere to hide. They were already a thorn in the flesh of the Datong rebels.
"His grandma has become the scapegoat of the Kelan Army." Lu Huaizhong spat and said dissatisfied: "The last time the rebels went south, they first defeated Zheluping, and then used this as a basis to attack the Kelan Army southward.
This time we are here, we have to test the sword no matter what. Although I also want to fight against the Datong Army, the feeling of being treated as a scapegoat is too damn oppressive."
"Actually, why bother to fight to the death?" Li Yanling whispered from the side: "If the rebels come, we will send envoys to sue for peace, and both sides will live in peace."
"How can it be so simple!" Guan Kairun, who has become increasingly silent recently, said: "With six thousand people stationed in the city, how big of a heart does Li Guochang have to dare to turn a blind eye to us? Aren't you afraid that after his main force goes south, we will go out of the city and cut off his food route?
?”
"Food roads? Do the rebels have food roads?" Lu Huaizhong sneered and said, "You can eat wherever you fight, there is no food road!"
Guan Kairun glanced at Lu Huaizhong and said nothing. In today's collective, he and his group of officers and soldiers from Chang'an have a somewhat awkward status. They usually try to keep a low profile and avoid fighting with others to avoid being deliberately targeted. However, his behavior
He showed weakness and was despised by his group of "surprise generals" from Fengzhou. They secretly showed favor to Shao Shude, which caused Guan's prestige in the squadron to suffer some loss. This time he took the initiative to speak, which may have brushed off his presence.
I mean, this guy really has a sense of crisis. Moreover, the original benefactor Qiu Weidao has indeed become a little colder. Although he has the factor of saving his life in the battle, but how can I put it, he does not take enough care of the old man.
"Lu Huaizhong!" Shao Shude reminded him heavily. Seeing that this guy was a little more honest, he turned to Guan Kairun and said: "Actually, what Guan Duizheng said is good. Although the rebels rely on robbery, they can never rely on robbery alone. This response
We can’t afford the material supply and demand for a large-scale army. Twenty thousand people, what a joke! Even if food can be robbed, what about weapons and military supplies? This is not easy to rob! Therefore, the rebels must have logistical transportation lines, and most of them
Passing through the Caocheng River, they cannot leave us alone unless our entire army surrenders and gives up Chaluken City."
“Then we have to fight...” Li Yanling sighed softly, with mixed emotions.
"There's nothing we can do about it." Shao Shude stood up, looked at the heavy snow falling outside the house, and said with a smile: "But we also have an advantage, that is, at least we still have the 'doghouse' of Zheluping. The first two
We are rushing to transport grain, grass and military supplies every month, and now it is not a problem to support the March. What do the Datong rebels have? They are quick to decide and will not fight for a long time, so we can just delay it. As long as we work together, no one will be cheated and surrender to the enemy. With the 20,000 yuan from Li Guochang and his son,
People, I'm afraid they still can't take down the Zhelu Army City. Besides, they're probably not willing to pay a big price to attack the city, right? The casualties here are heavy, but they won't be able to fight a decisive battle with the army. Li Guochang is not stupid, he won't do this
made."
Indeed, to deal with the impoverished gang of Li Guochang and his son, procrastination is enough. They can win once, twice or even three times, but so what? As long as they do not form an organized system to annihilate the main force of the camp army, as long as they do not sweep through the seven states and one prefecture in Hedong and expand their territory,
If they waste it for a long time, they have no chance of winning. What's more, according to the military envoys, the imperial court is urging Youzhou Town to dispatch a large army as soon as possible to occupy Yuzhou and cut off the rebels.
How could the imperial court lose such a huge advantage?
"No matter what, since we, the warriors, receive food and wages from the imperial court, we naturally have to work hard. Moreover, Li Guochang and his son were not strict in their control, and their military discipline was extremely poor. They brought disaster to various states and counties and committed countless crimes. Who can we say that these people who are just a prey to the common people are...
Do you want him to be the military envoy of Datong or even the military envoy of Hedong?" After saying that, Shao Shude looked at the core officers sitting around him and saw that some were disapproving, some were thoughtful, and some seemed indifferent, sighing secretly in his heart.
, have your own moral standards been set too high? Is asking people to have a bottom line, a conscience, and morality to be a bullshit for these warriors?
"I don't particularly understand what the deputy general means. But Li Guochang and his son deserved to die. They sent levies arbitrarily in Daibei. They were several times more vicious than the Turks, Tuhun, and Uighurs. The Buddha should have sent down thunder from the sky and struck down
Forget about killing this kind of people." Seeing that everyone was silent, Li Yanling spoke up.
After saying that, he felt that something was wrong. He remembered that when the Li bandits first started to attack, Dou Han, the commander of the Hedong Festival, sent 500 Uighur cavalry to patrol the border and fought several battles with the Shatuo cavalry. Not many of them could return. Jinyang City
There are more than 2,000 Shatuo soldiers inside. They also participated in the Honggu Battle a while ago, fighting endlessly with Daibei Shatuo, causing heavy casualties. These people seemed to be quite loyal to the court, and they were not that vicious, so they fought with Daibei Shatuo.
Turks, Dangxiang, and Uighur soldiers can be seen everywhere in Tiande's army. Lao Li felt that he had defeated too many people at one stroke, which was a bit inappropriate, so he compensated: "What I mean is that Li Guochang and his son deserve to die, and other people are not involved."
Alas, we are all miserable people in troubled times, why bother killing them?"
"What Lao Li said is right." Shao Shude praised: "Even if it is not for the imperial court or fame and wealth, our German army should work together to kill these two animals as soon as possible. Otherwise, countless people in the world will suffer because of them.
He died. The Chalu army is a passage for thieves and the only way for the rebels to go south. Let's make preparations as soon as possible."
Note 1: Loufan Ridge is about ten miles southwest of Ningwu County. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Khitan used this as its boundary. There is Loufan Pass on the ridge.
Note 2: Furong City, now the ancient city of Ninghua, was called Furong City in the Tang Dynasty, Ninghua Fort in the Song Dynasty, and was later named Ninghua County.
Note 3: Jingle County, today’s Jingle County.
NOTE 4: Loufan Supervisor City was the seat of Loufan Supervisor and Commissioner in the early Tang Dynasty. It was built in the middle of Kaiyuan Dynasty. It was located on the west bank of Fen River in present-day Loufan County. It was always an important source of troops and horses in northern Xinjiang during the Tang Dynasty.