The army started from Jinyang and stretched for more than ten miles to the north.
Li Kan has been in Xinning for four years and has seen many scenes like this. However, Hedong is rich and prosperous, and the sergeants are naturally not comparable to those in the bitter northwest town. The armor is distinctive and the judgment is clear.
On the sixth day of May, the army passed through Hubeikou (Note 1) and stayed overnight in Sanjiao Village (Note 2). On the second day, they set off again and arrived in Yangqu County on the eighth day of May. This place was before Li Kan took over Jinyang.
At the meeting place with the generals, he felt a little emotional and asked Shao Shude to accompany him around.
“What do you think of the troops in Hedong today?” Li Kan asked casually, fiddling with the official documents in his hand.
The Guardsman Zheng Fengyin stood up straight subconsciously. Shao Shude glanced at him, composed his sentences, and replied: "The armies in Hedong are skilled in skills and have strict military formations, but they are unwilling to use their lives and are unruly and difficult to control. Zhang,
The second general, Guo, is domineering and arrogant, with no regard for superiors. Generals such as He and Kang are greedy for wealth and do not want to kill the enemy. Coach Weidu made Zhang Yanqiu quite strategic and respectful to the commander."
It doesn't sound good, but it's the truth. Zhang Kai and Guo Fei rose to the top by virtue of the military chaos. They have both been promoted to the throne and are arrogant to their peers. As the generals of Hedong, they certainly have reason to look down on Li Kan, who was parachuted into office. What Xing Ning?
A handsome guy? Is the local bully from a small place worthy of competing with us from Hedong?
He Gongya and Kang Chuangui, the tooth generals who used to be alongside Zhang and Guo, were as greedy for money as life, and at the same time they were cruel and easy to kill. They had no good feelings toward others. He Gongya is still a tooth general in Fucheng, with thousands of troops under his command.
, Kang Chuangui was appointed as the general of Shiling Town, and he also commanded thousands of troops. Both of them were powerful factions, so they naturally disliked Li Kan, an outsider.
Only Zhang Yanqiu, as the commander-in-chief of the capital, did not have military power at hand. If he wanted to command the troops, he had to nod the commander and go through the procedures before an army could be handed over to him. However, soldiers do not know generals, and generals do not know soldiers.
It is extremely difficult to do something. Therefore, his position is rather embarrassing and he wants to be in command, so he can show a little bit of goodwill. But he cannot do it too obviously, otherwise he will be criticized by the Hedong Jiangmen Group.
Isolated.
Speaking of isolation, Shao Shude, as a small lieutenant general - damn, Marshal Li hasn't promoted me yet - is an outsider, and not all of his soldiers are from Hedong. He has long been frowned upon by the generals in the city.
That's right, it's quite cold in isolation.
Of course, this was not beyond his expectation. He escorted Li Kan all the way to take office, and even a blind person knew who he was. Why, you still want to get along with the generals in Hedong? If you get along with them, it will be Marshal Li's turn to be dissatisfied.
What's more, this is basically impossible, unless you settle down in Hedong. When your grandson's generation comes, you may be able to integrate into this large group.
Therefore, the current Tielindu is just like the Zhaoyi Army brought over by Cao Xiang. It is an outlier in the Hedong military system. Not to mention, it seems that Tielindu doesn’t have a serious status now, right? It was before
The guards of Qiu Weidao, the Tiande Supervisory Army, are self-recruited troops, not an army organized by the imperial court. Now they are Marshal Li's de facto personal soldiers, and they are supported by Marshal Li's rewards from time to time. In terms of organization, they are not Hedong.
The soldiers and horses were naturally rejected by the generals of Hedong.
However, Shao Shude didn't take it seriously. He had been in Jinyang for more than half a month. If he had any illusions before, they were all gone now. He knew that it would be difficult for him to gain a foothold in Hedong, and he would not be favored by Jinyang.
Yang Zhujiang's treatment was so great that he had no intention of developing it in the long term.
If you don’t keep me here, you will have a place to keep me. The worst I can do is run back to Lanzhou and continue to hang out with Qiu Shijun. I just don’t know if he can still support the more than a thousand people in Tielindu. If he can
If you successfully supervise a large military town or gain greater real power in a feudal town, there should be no problem. After all, some of the eunuchs' "companions" are quite powerful: Ju Wenzhen "came out of prison of the Xuanwu Army and hired thousands of his own soldiers"; "Yiyi"
Li Fujidu, the envoy of Chengjiedu, and Xue Yingzhen, the supervisor of the army, considered the change and suddenly sealed the treasury and put 500 people under his command in the envoy Ya"; "Gui Guan has 800 soldiers, and the defense envoy only has 100 people, and the rest are all supervisors."
Of course, the most powerful one is Zhu Jingmei, the supervisor of the Jingnan Army. He "chooses three thousand strong men, calls them loyal and brave troops, and leads them himself". He almost dominates the town and no one can stop him.
Qiu Shijun, you have to work hard! If you are good enough, Shao will help you "become a master and a blessing", and everyone can enjoy the wealth and honor.
"Before you fight against foreign forces, you must first secure the interior. If you don't get rid of the stubborn teeth, how will the soldiers use their lives!" Li Kan said lightly after being silent for a long time, but these words gave the listeners a shocking feeling.
“Commander, the time is not yet ripe...”
Li Kan glared at Shao Shude and said slowly: "I have my own sense of proportion. If I succeed, let alone a ten general, what about Fucheng Ya General? Lieutenant General Shao, do your best, your future will be indispensable. Let's go down first.
, lead the troops well."
Shao Shude heard this and Nuonuo retreated. This was the second time someone told him to "do it well". He didn't know what "do it well" meant. He acted as a knife for Li Kan, hunted down the generals, and wiped out the rebels? Did he really do that?
If something like this happened, would he suddenly "die suddenly" like Marshal Cao in Hedong? Somehow, Shao Shude suddenly felt that his days in Hedong were numbered.
That's all, I was led by Qiu Shijun, and Li Kan treated me well during this period. Whatever he wants to do, just do it. Killing Han is a cheap life. Sometimes, the more panic you have, the more afraid you will be.
He might die sooner. Thinking of this, he called Lu Huaizhong, Ren Yuji, Li Yanling and other subordinates to inspect the camp seriously.
Tilindu is your capital and your support, you must hold it firmly.
******
On May 11, the Chinese army arrived at Shiling Town. This place is the northern boundary of Yangqu County, only 40 miles away from Lisuo Xiurong County in Xinzhou. There is Shiling Mountain to the north of Shiling Town, and there is Shiling Pass on the mountain. The terrain is dangerous, and only
Bicycles are allowed to pass. Yajiang Kang Chuangui is currently serving as the general of Shiling Town, commanding thousands of troops to guard against the Datong Army going south.
The army of more than ten thousand passed Shiling Pass, which really wasted a lot of time. When he led Tielindu through, Shao Shude looked at the steep mountains on both sides, and he felt doubtful in his heart. In the future, Li Keyong became the governor of Hedong. What exactly was it?
How did it do it? It couldn't be by force, because the Hedong Army's combat effectiveness was pretty good, and there were so many dangerous passes that even Li Keyong, who was exhausted, couldn't defeat them one by one.
Then the conclusion is actually very obvious. He relied not on force, but on rewards from the court, and he legitimately took the position of Hedong Jiedushi. He had the three Shatuo tribes and the five northern tribes as sources of troops, and the Datong army as the backbone, and he could pull them in at will.
With tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, the strong dragon suppressed the local snake.
Alas, Huang Chao's uprising seemed like a good opportunity for a major reshuffle. After Huang Chao entered Chang'an, the imperial court gave him a large number of official positions that were impossible to obtain in the past, as if they were free of charge. He recalled it carefully, but he couldn't remember most of them clearly.
, only the fact that Li Keyong obtained the military governorship of Hedong by fighting against Huang Chao, and that Tuoba Sigong obtained the title of military governor of Dingnan Army (the original military governor of Xia Sui Yinyou) still has some impression.
Are you prepared for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?
On May 16th, the army passed through Xinzhou without entering, and reached Xinkou. This is a gap in the mountain basin. The Tuotuo River flows from north to south to the mouth of the valley, and the Xinchuan River comes from the west and meets the south of the mouth. The two mountains stand between them.
, it is very dangerous. The Hedong Army set up a pass here and garrisoned troops, making it very difficult to attack.
That night, the generals advised Li Kan not to go further north. Gein went tens of miles north from Xinkou and was about to enter the territory of Daizhou. This was a place where the forces of both sides were intertwined and saw each other, and no one could guarantee safety.
Li Kan did not want to show his cowardice in front of the generals and insisted on marching north.
On May 19th, the army arrived at Tanglin County in Daizhou. On the 20th, it arrived at Guo County. On the 21st, it arrived at Yanmen County (today's Daizhou County) in Lisuo, Daizhou. Li Kan ordered the entire army to garrison here.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
To the northwest of Daizhou City, there is the continuous Hengshan Mountains, and beyond the mountains is the boundary of Shuozhou. The mountains are extremely steep as a whole, and there are only a dozen valley roads for people, horses, and vehicles. The Hedong Army was near the two most important valley roads.
Guancheng was built at the top of the mountain. The Guancheng 35 miles to the northwest is called Yanmen Pass, and the Guancheng 70 miles to the west is called Tucheng (the east end of the Great Wall of the Eastern Wei Dynasty).
The two gates and various valley roads were guarded by elite soldiers, and the generals were not useless snacks like Su Hongzhen. Therefore, the Datong rebels could not directly cross the mountains from the Shuozhou boundary into the Xindai Basin, and had to take a long detour, which was more troublesome. ——One more thing to say here, Yanmen Pass does not just refer to a pass city, but a collective name for a defense system composed of a series of nearby passes, which often includes multiple cities and villages to block various valley roads.
Daizhou governs five counties, namely Yanmen, Tanglin, Nao, Wutai, and Fanzhi. There are many troops stationed on the front line, including 3,000 Zhongwu Army, 6,000 Yicheng Army, and 4,000 Heyang Army. There are more than 10,000 Hedong troops, plus more than 4,000 Xin, and more than 4,000 soldiers from the second state, and more than 10,000 Tutuan peasants who have been temporarily armed, making the army almost 40,000!
Shao Shude was very surprised when he learned this number. There were 40,000 troops. Why not go north to fight the rebels and put an end to the chaos in Daibei in one fell swoop? It has been almost a year since Li Guochang and his son were weak. The ability is to go south, but why don't you go north? Are you playing a sit-in war?
When the Tiande army heard that the Shuozhou army on the opposite side was approaching and their strength was similar to theirs, Hao Zhenwei believed that it was not advisable to "not advance after hearing the enemy", so he made up his mind to fight Xue Zhiqin, and finally won the battle. Haha, a famous town in Hedong , 40,000 troops wasting food and pay on the front line, what a waste! He now understood that the defeats of Honggu and Jingle were not accidental. The peaceful days had been too long, and the soldiers of Hedong had long since disappeared. Shuofang, Xia Sui, The bloody nature of the sergeants in border towns such as Tiande, Zhenwu, Datong and Youzhou.
A group of rats can only live together in a nest!
Note 1: Hubeikou, ferry, is located on the north bank of Fen River.
“In the first year of Tianfu in the Later Jin Dynasty, the Khitan Lord led 50,000 horses, marched south from Yangwu Valley to Jinyang, and arrived at the north entrance of the Tiger Mountain in the north of Fen... (Shi) Jingtang went out of the north gate to meet the Khitan Lord.”
There is a poem "Hubeikou" written by Song Dynasty people, which goes: "There is no direction for coming and going, and there is no wheel for horses to go. The natural dangers are clearly limited to one Tianjin. I hope that there will be a hundred thousand jade dragons crossing, and I will recognize the old man again at Yuguan."
Note 2: There are generally many post stations near big cities. There are Qincheng Post and Wucheng Post in the suburbs of Jinyang, Sanjiao Post more than thirty miles to the north, and Sanjiao Village to the north of the Post. Sanjiao Village is located at Sanjiaokou, which is an important military area. Song Dynasty In the fourth year of Taiping's rejuvenation of the country, "Pan Mei was ordered to recruit envoys for the North Road, pacify Taiyuan, and continue the expedition to Fan Yang. He and his squadron were ordered to take charge of the deployment of the three branches, and stay in the camp to defend the north."
Of course the most famous post station in the late Tang and Five Dynasties was Chenqiao Post Station, as everyone knows.
