The news that Shao Shude, the king of Lingwu County, galloped fifty miles in one night from Xiashi to Shaanzhou quickly spread throughout the streets and alleys.
The officials in Shaanzhou were embarrassed and didn't know how to deal with Shao Shude. In the end, they could only pretend to be deaf and dumb and pretend they didn't see him.
The Shaanxi and Guo sergeants in the city were very disappointed.
There were rumors in the army that Yamen General Li Fan sent people to Qili Jian in the west of the city last night to borrow troops from Xia Division to quell the rebellion. This made people scold Zhu Jian for causing rebellion.
That’s the big deal!
Shaanxi and Guo are a small place with not much land, but a large population. All kinds of supplies and money are very tight, and basically everyone has their own owner.
It is not necessarily a bad thing that Zhu Jian is the governor of Jiedushi. At least he can be regarded as a general of Shaanxi. He knows how to divide the benefits and will not mess around.
If Shao Shude seized the military power of the generals as soon as he came up and annexed the Shaanxi and Guo army, would everyone be able to maintain their own interests?
To whom should I give my tribute to the passing business traveler?
Who is responsible for collecting taxes at Guancheng, pontoon bridges and ferries?
Who will be sent to transfer the taxes from Guandong to Chang'an?
There are already many people but little land. Will the land be redistributed?
Many of them were occupied official fields. For example, during the Chao Rebellion, the Shence Army stationed in Shaanzhou was defeated, and a large amount of the land it owned was divided among everyone. Some abandoned post stations and post fields were also invaded in large quantities. Is it possible?
Someone is rehabilitating an old score?
Also, the original tribute from Shaanxi and Guo to the imperial court was not small, but not much. Shao Shude wanted to fight Zhu Quanzhong, and his hometown was far away in Lingxia. No matter how much money and food he had, he couldn't transport it, so he had to be here.
Are you making money locally and why?
On the west city wall of Shaanzhou, Shao Shude looked at the surging river and felt emotional.
Li Fan softly explained these complex interest demands on the side. There is only one core point: it is best to let the Shaanxi general be the Shaanxi commander.
Shao Shude listened quietly and thought silently.
Should ruling the northwest and ruling the Central Plains be adapted to local conditions?
The four Guanbei provinces have a weak population, weak economic strength, and a small army, so the problem is not big and they can be ruled directly.
The towns in Guanzhong are not as powerful as the vassal towns in the Central Plains, and the strongest Fengxiang Army only has 20,000 troops.
The imperial court has always had a clear understanding of the strength of the Zhongyuan vassal towns. Before the Chao Rebellion, it still had some prestige. It often sent people to each town to require that the "number of soldiers and horses" in each town should be maintained "appropriately" and that no large military establishment should be retained.
.
Even so, the Tianping Army separated from Ziqing Town was "organized into three counties and commanded 30,000 troops." In other words, the standing army of the Tianping Army was 30,000 people. This was just the number on the roster shown to the court.
How many actually are there? Who knows?
Taining Army, 40,000 standing troops.
Xuanwu Army, a standing army of one hundred thousand.
"Bianzhou has always had many military campaigns, and Liu Xuanzuo raised his army to one hundred thousand." This happened during the Jianzhong period.
"Today in the town of Xia, Chen Liu is the largest. He has stationed 100,000 troops and is connected to the four prefectures." This happened during the Zhenyuan period.
By the time of the Xianzong Dynasty, there were still "one hundred thousand troops."
Later, the number decreased year by year, and some were taken away by Gao Pian to Huainan, and a large part was lost in the Huangchao attack. So when Zhu Quanzhong went there, there were not many people left, but the foundation was still there and the strength was strong. Many people were actually beaten.
After they dispersed, Quanzhong recruited scattered soldiers, which actually helped him a lot.
Wu Ning's army, 30,000 people.
Yicheng army, 20,000 people.
Heyang Army, 50,000 people.
Huaixi Town, 50,000 people.
…
Of course, the above figures are all before the Chao Rebellion. After the Chao Rebellion, the number of troops increased just like the price of food. The court has no idea how much it is now, and it would be useless to find out.
Shaanxi and Guo Town originally had more than 15,000 soldiers. After the Chao Rebellion, they declined instead of increasing. Currently, there are still more than 10,000 soldiers, but they are mainly soldiers from the vassal town, and the Shence Army has been destroyed.
"General Li, Zhu Jian and his family will be escorted to the river by you and handed over to Wang Chongying. The captured Zhu Canjun will be taken with him." Shao Shude suddenly said: "You are a Shaanxi general and your status is appropriate. If Wang Chongying asks,
Do you know how to say it?"
"This military rebellion was caused by Zhu Quanzhong, with the intention of annexing Shaanxi and Guozhou. Zhu Jian has entered the Quanzhong family tree and changed his name to Youqian. One of them is ambitious and the other is wolf-hearted. After the military rebellion broke out, a certain man went out of the city overnight and summoned Fengxiang's army to put down the rebellion.
, punish the rebels." Li Fan replied.
What they said were basically facts and all were oral confessions.
Fengxiang Town is located seven miles southwest of Shaanxi City, and the Sun Floating Bridge is only one mile away. It can be reached in a short time. On the surface, there seems to be no problem.
Of course Wang Chongying could see that things were not that simple.
But so what?
The terrain of Shaanxi and Guo is difficult and dangerous, and it is difficult to defeat it by force. Even if it is conquered, the losses will be huge.
I just want to go to Shaanxi. I'll give you a step down. Will you accept it?
It doesn't matter if you don't take it, we will attack the river later, if Li Keyong can't control it.
If Shuofang's army wants to go east, Shaanxi and Guo must be in his hands, and at least part of the river must be controlled. Shao Shude is not so worried about taking advantage of the road to attack Zhu Quanzhong again and again.
To put it harshly, Hezhong Town may now have become the first priority target, not Zhu Quanzhong.
Just like Zhao Deqi of Shannan East Road, if you don't go east, you can still maintain a good relationship with people. Hello, I am good, everyone. But since you want to go east, you must break up.
When Hezhong Town faced military pressure, it might turn to Li Keyong or Zhu Quanzhong. There was no way around it.
It was the same when Zhu Quanzhong came to occupy Shaanxi and Guo. Wang Chongying would either defect to Li or Shao. However, at this stage, Zhu Quanzhong's priority was not to go west, but to the east.
If you want to occupy territory without paying any price, how can such a good thing always be possible?
After explaining to Li Fan, Shao Shude went down from the tower. He still had a difficult task to deal with, which was how to deal with the Shaanxi and Guo sergeants and the various states and counties that were not yet under his control.
The Shaanxi and Guo army dispersed a thousand men last night, and there will be about four thousand left now.
In the outer prefectures and counties, there are probably less than 4,000 people, and they are stationed relatively scattered.
"Commander, Li Fan's words are actually correct." Chen Cheng said: "Now that the Quanzhong army is pressing down on the border, it would be unsightly if we can't clean up the situation in Shaanxi and Guo as soon as possible and let the stalemate continue. We might as well let Li Fan be the rear guard of Shaanxi and Guo.
, he is a Shaanxi general. After becoming Liu, as long as he does not act randomly, the counties will still obey. After the Quanzhong soldiers retreat, we will find a way to slowly deal with these military leaders."
When a warrior is in power and takes power through a coup, he has his own set of hidden rules.
Wang Gong is dead, and one of the generals in the town is promoted. As long as the other generals in the military government agree to it, determine the hierarchy, and then send envoys to the states and counties, the transfer of power will be completed. This has been the case for hundreds of years.
It's just a joke. Later, the court only needs to complete a formality, from Jiedu Liu to Jiedu Envoy, and it will be completely stable.
"You can let Li Fan stay behind first and calm down the people in the town. When Quanzhong comes to attack, the Shaanxi and Guo army can also play a role. When scouts come to report, Pang Shigu has sent his troops into two groups, entering Xiong'er Mountain and passing through Henan Prefecture.
In the south, Lushi County in Guozhou is in danger, and its fall may be imminent." Shao Shude said: "The interests of the old officials and generals of Shaanxi and Guozhou will not be affected for the time being."
Having said this, Shao Shude also sighed. At the moment, he still had to coax these treacherous officials.
The western part of Ruzhou, the southern part of Henan Prefecture and Shangzhou are all mountainous areas and belong to the remnants of the Qinling Mountains.
However, there are many counties distributed in the mountain valleys. In addition to Shangzhou, agriculture in the mountainous areas of Guozhou, Henan Prefecture, and Ruzhou is still very developed, and the population is also large.
After the Bian army captures Lu's family, they will most likely attack Zhuyang, Yucheng and other mountainous counties in Guozhou, and then choose the next direction of action.
Here, they can give full play to their advantages of having more infantry, rich combat experience, and sufficient supplies to abolish the Xia army's cavalry mobility. This strategic choice is very pragmatic.
If people in Shaanxi and Guozhou are unsettled at this time and a large area of people turn to Zhu Quanzhong, things will become very difficult. The Bian army from all the counties and villages in the mountainous area can choose the direction to go north and attack the Xiaohan Valley Road. That would be too difficult.
Passive.
"Go and talk to Li Fan about this matter, and you must hurry up." Shao Shude warned again.
…
Near Xin'an County, cavalry envoy Oritsugu Yu saw a strange troop.
The Xuanwu Cavalry is coming.
But if you look closely, you will see that they are definitely not professional cavalry, because the horses under their crotches are "not right."
Then they are not horses, some are simply mules! Although the rest are horses, they are all inferior horses. What is the Bian army doing?
However, he was familiar with military books and soon remembered the famous Huaixi Mule Army.
The Huaiyi people were good at riding, but they lacked horses and could not form a large-scale cavalry force. Huaixi also had a tradition of raising mules, so they searched for inferior horses, sluts, and mules that the cavalry did not like, and used them as transportation tools for the infantry to ride on.
Hurry, dismount and fight. And because their riding skills are also good, they will occasionally charge at the infantry.
In that era, the reputation of the Huaixi Mule Army was so great that it was "the most powerful and the army was always on guard against it."
In fact, only about one-fifth of a group of horses can be selected as war horses. The remaining horses are looked down upon by the cavalry masters and are called "horses".
But there are also people who use the horse, usually ordinary people buy it as a means of transportation.
The Bian Army gathered together horses, mules and the like, and selected infantry with some riding skills to ride on them. Is this to resurrect the "Huaixi Mule Army"?
Mule mounted heavy infantry!
To be honest, Shuofang's army really didn't have much experience in dealing with mounted infantry.
But as far as the country is concerned, the application of mounted infantry is actually very common.
At that time, the area controlled by the Anxi Army was too large, but the troops were insufficient. In order to solve this problem, a large number of horses were provided to the infantry. Then a large army station was built. The infantry rode horses to a place, took a short rest, changed horses, and continued on their way. Therefore,
The maneuverability advantage is extremely strong.
When Su Dingfang defeated the Turks, his infantrymen rode up to catch up with the Turks, then dismounted and formed a formation to fight and defeated them.
"I also wanted to build horse-mounted infantry, but the Bian Army did it first." Oretsugu said, somewhat dumbfounded.
He knew that Huaixi "extensively breeds mules". If the Bian army rode mules to fight the Xia army's cavalry, he would laugh out loud, but if they fought on mule foot, he would have to think of a way.
Mules have good endurance, strength, and load-bearing capabilities compared to horses. They are a little slower, but they are still faster than infantry.
The most important thing is that regardless of the feed, they are not prone to disease, and their service life is longer than that of horses, so the cost is reduced.
It is indeed a cheap substitute when there is no horse available, but it is also a specialty of Huaixi.
"Where did the Tianxiong army go to protect the people?" Zhe Siyu called Li Renfu, the Marquis of Du Yu, and asked.
"We have arrived at Mianchi."
"Okay, let's not fight head-on, let's focus on delay." Oritsugu Yu ordered.
The imperial dynasty used mounted infantry to deal with the Hu people. They usually went straight to the enemy's nomadic areas to seize the location of their camps, forcing the Hu cavalry to dare not wander around and attack the large formations you had set up. Naturally, this would lead to a disastrous defeat.
What will the mounted infantry of the Bian Army do? What if there is a small number of cavalry combined with a large group of heavy armored infantry mounted on mules, how should they deal with it?
