The autumn wind suddenly blows, and the rivers rustle. In the wild fields, there is severe frost all over the ground.
Today's weather is actually not too bad.
The clouds were hanging very high, almost nonexistent. Looking around, Mang Mountain was clearly visible.
It’s just that the wind is a bit strong!
The withered grass and trees were all destroyed, and the farmers, whose clothes were thin, could not help but feel cold. They could only continue to wield their spades and pickaxes, trying their best to resist the cold wind.
But I didn’t eat much when I went out in the morning. After a while, I was so hungry that I started to growl, and my hands and feet became weak.
After working hard for a while, the farmer suddenly squatted on the ground and cried loudly...
How can I survive this day when my clothes are thin, I have no accommodation at home, and I am still doing hard labor?
The wind also became lighter and seemed to be sighing.
The sound of hoofbeats sounded, and the knights hurried past the stream.
There is no rain in winter, and the valley water is shallow, making it difficult to wade.
Luoyang is almost unchanged from five years ago, with ruins and rubble everywhere.
The urban area cleared by Zhang Quanyi is still the main settlement area, and Hu Zhen's mansion is located in it.
"Shuai Hu, the Xia bandits are attacking the city in a hurry every day, but there are not enough garrison troops in the Mengnan area. What's the point?" If he hadn't been anxious, Huo Yanwei wouldn't have spoken so rudely.
After all, Hu Zhen was the elder Yuancong of Liang Jun, and his status and qualifications were there. When he persuaded the King of Liang to return to the Tang Dynasty, it was he, Zhu Zhen, and Xie Tong who were in charge. As long as he had no trace of rebellion, no one could touch him.
"The hoeing and plowing (zhú) invades the stars, and the long acres are abundant and the family is happy. In the end, the grain and millet belong to others, and I don't know where to leave my wife." Hu Zhen held the wine bottle and looked up at the blue sky.
"Ah? Hu Shuai, what are you talking about?" Huo Yanwei was a little confused.
"I say you are right." Hu Zhen turned around, smiled and said, "If you don't have enough soldiers, you can ask Pang Dutou for them."
"Pang Dutou asked me to find Luoyang for emergency help first." Huo Yanwei said urgently: "Recently, a small group of Xia thieves have sneaked south and wandered around, robbing grain and grass. In Zhongli City and Nancheng, the grain supply cannot be continued, and the city's expenses are less than two days.
Yue. Pang Dutou is mobilizing men and horses to intercept the thieves, but he can't send out troops for a while."
"There are two thousand garrison soldiers in the middle city and three thousand elite soldiers in the south city. Even if the Xia bandits come with tens of thousands of troops, they may not be able to defeat them for a while, right? Furthermore, the river is not frozen, how many people can the Xia bandits come over?
I'm afraid Pang Dutou is deceiving you." Hu Zhen shook his head and said, "As for the food supply failure, I can't help. Did you know that during the Caizhou War this year, Luoyang also sent 100,000 dendrobium of food and grass to Ruzhou? Around Luoyang
There are more than 20,000 troops, as well as many horses and draft animals, and the population is only about 30,000 households. How can we squeeze out food and grass? General Huo, you are looking for me, I am afraid you are asking for fish in a tree."
Huo Yanwei was speechless.
"Pang Shigu really has no soldiers?" Hu Zhen sat down, drank the wine in the cup, and said with a smile: "Hua, I also heard about Zheng. After being ruined by the Xia thieves, the King of Liang sent people to vigorously rectify it.
.Yuan Xiangxian is also a capable man, and he trains his troops constantly, so why not let him bring over some men."
"Alas!" Huo Yanwei stamped his feet, not knowing what to say.
You push me, I push you, what a fight!
The small Yiluo Valley has more than 20,000 soldiers and horses. Li Tangbin on the opposite side only has a few soldiers, can he really attack it? Is the Eight Passes of Luoyang so easy to fight?
"General Huo, since you have nothing to do, you might as well go back." Hu Zhen said, "If we really don't have any troops, it's better to find Kou Yanqing. It's a pity that such an elite division of the Changzhi Army is stationed in Luoshui without any troops."
Huo Yanwei shook his head and left directly.
Hu Zhen played with the wine glass and remained silent.
After a long time, he sighed: "You want soldiers, and I want soldiers too. How many people in Luoyang only listen to my command?"
After Huo Yanwei left Hu Mansion, he mounted his horse and planned to return to Nancheng, Heyang.
Before leaving, he turned around and asked: "Mr. Zhang, just now Hu Shuai recited a poem. I didn't understand it. I only remember the sentence 'I don't know where to leave my wife.' What's the meaning of this?"
Mr. Zhang stroked his beard and said: "This is a poem of sympathy for the peasants, which has been widely circulated. Hu Shuai said this, there must be a meaning."
"What do you mean?" Huo Yanwei asked.
"Perhaps it is said that the people of Luoyang are suffering. After plowing the fields under the stars and wearing the moon, and harvesting a great harvest, the grain and beans were taken away by others, and they had to abandon their wives and children and flee." Mr. Zhang said.
Only then did Huo Yanwei realize it, and suddenly said: "Don't you just want to recruit troops, and don't want to send food and grass? As for being so meandering? You idiots are just trying to make things up."
Hu Zhen was born into a wealthy family in Jiangling. He was good at riding and shooting, and had served as a county official. He could be said to be both civilized and military. It is unscientific to say that he was a Mao Aizi. But it did not prevent Huo Yanwei from classifying him as a "cunning" and "hateful" Mao Aizi.
ranks.
Mr. Zhang laughed awkwardly.
"Even one member from three households can recruit more than ten thousand soldiers and horses. Hu Zhen is clearly trying to stall me and has some sectarian ideas." Huo Yanwei was still a little angry and shouted: "Shao Thief's Fan people have only one member from each family.
Some families have two children, and Hu Zhen is so considerate of him and her, could it be that..."
"Major General, be careful what you say." Mr. Zhang coughed and said.
Huo Yanwei snorted coldly, mounted his horse and left.
…
In the north of Zhongli City in Heyang, some people are already cutting down trees and setting up a stronghold.
Fu Cunshen, the envoy to the German army, led more than a thousand elite troops to the front to serve as wing guards.
As expected, the Liang people set fire to the bridge, but it was not completely successful. It was stopped after only burning part of it. Currently, people are being sent to replace the ship's planks and renovate the bridge deck.
Heyangguan, or Zhongli City, is not too big. There are many forests, farmland, ponds, orchards on the island in the center of the river. Liang Jun abandoned the entire defense and retreated into the city.
Fu Cunshen looked left and right and felt that he could fight, but it would cost a lot of casualties.
In fact, in his opinion, the most dangerous one was Liang Jun's navy.
It is possible for the thieves to cut off the return route of their vanguard force, but there is no way to deal with it. On the north bank of the river, boats are being built, loaded with firewood and kerosene. As long as the Liang people's warships approach, they will come from the north bank.
It was released from the pontoon. This section of the river is relatively narrow. If there are enough fire boats floating down the river, Liang Jun's navy can still be prevented from approaching.
The number of thieves in Heyang Pass is almost clear. There are about 2,000 people, half of them are Yamen soldiers and rural warriors. If the enemy army does not have reinforcements and they attack desperately regardless of casualties, the outcome of Heyang Pass will probably be like this. Like Guanghe Town and Banzhu City, it was eventually captured by the Xia army.
The pressure of the battle was not great, so Fu Cunshen had time to actively think and deduce the next series of battles.
He knew very well that what he was seeing was just the prelude to a large-scale battle against the Liang people.
"General Fu, the thieves dare not leave the city?" Su Junqing walked over and asked with a smile.
"Judge Su." Fu Cunshen saluted and said: "The thieves have few soldiers and dare not go out to fight in the city. They are worried that if they are defeated, I will take advantage of them and invade the pass."
"The morale of the Liang thieves is low, and it seems that their fall is not far away." Su Junqing said: "Situ of the Song Dynasty sent me to escort a batch of grain, grass, and equipment. I see that the stronghold has been roughly formed. Can it be transported in?"
"Yes." Fu Cunzhen nodded and asked, "Has Judge Su been to Nan'an?"
"I've been there before," Su Junqing said, "Sishui and Heyin counties are on the south bank, and half of Heyang County is on the south bank."
"Which one is easier to attack, Luoyang or Bianzhou?" Fu Cunshen asked again.
"It's easy to get to Bianzhou, but difficult to get to Keluoyang."
"If you want to go to Cloyang, where should you go when heading south from Heyang?"
"It is undoubtedly Bai Sima Ban."
"What's the explanation?"
"There is Mang Mountain to the north of Luoyang, and there is Bai Sima Ban, also known as Baimapo, to the north of Mangshan. There is an ancient ferry at the foot of the slope. In the ninth year of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Xuangan rebelled. His younger brother Xuanting sent three thousand soldiers to cross Mangshan from Baimapo. Follow him to the Gate of the Sun with three thousand people," Su Junqing said.
"Why not march along Luoshui?"
"In the area around Luokou and Yanshi, the Liang thieves may have stationed a heavy army and it will be difficult to attack them."
Fu Cunzhen nodded and said with a smile: "It's the same as what I thought."
After that, he looked at the slightly dilapidated Heyang Pass and said, "Let's break this city first."
…
"What happened to Uncle Cong?" In Zhengzhou City, Pang Shigu caressed the map and frowned.
Zhang Shensi looked unhappy and sat next to him.
He was lucky. He caught up with the good times and suffered a defeat, but he did not die in white clothes like the unlucky Liu Kangyi back then. He was only demoted and hid in the snow for a while, and then was hired by Pang Shigu. Come here and serve as Du Yu Hou.
The Xia thieves' flying dragon army broke into Xuzhou again, causing chaos.
The strength of their troops was also figured out, and the number of them increased as they fought, up to more than 8,000 people, which was very surprising.
This is not to say that the Xia thieves recruited new soldiers, in fact they did not. Their expansion of troops was mainly due to absorbing too many "scum" from Henan.
Yes, it is scum!
Many deserters who had lost their officers, as well as restless thieves themselves, defected to the Xia thieves and acted as helpers, attacking the villages of Henan and returning the ruthless blows to the thieves.
But it's no use just hating them, they won't lose a piece of meat. The most important thing is how to intercept them, gather them together and annihilate them.
"Shishu Cong has too few soldiers. He can only fight 20,000 people, but he has to take care of Xu and stay in such a big place." Zhang Shensi knew that Shishu Cong was Pang Shigu's old subordinate and a favorite general, so he spoke more carefully: "
We must cooperate with the soldiers and horses in Caozhou's camp, otherwise we may not be able to stop them."
Pang Shigu's frown deepened: "But Qibi Zhang and Zhu Jin's thousands of defeated troops were able to contain Suzhou. There were tens of thousands of elite camps in Caozhou, and most of the cavalry were stationed there. If
The river freezes in winter, and summer thieves cross the river in large numbers and head south. How can we resist them?"
"Pang Shuai, how are the Xia bandits doing in Heyang? Is there plenty of food and grass?" Zhang Shensi asked solemnly.
"I get angry when I talk about this." Pang Shigu said angrily: "Li Hui's navy doesn't know what to do with food. Every time I report the capture, I have sunk many Xia thieves' grain ships, but they are still transporting grain and grass to Heqing.
The equipment and equipment on the front line of Zhiguan are probably being transferred day and night. Thief Shao even led tens of thousands of people to patrol east of Heyang. Does it look like the food and grass can't support it?"
Zhang Shensi was speechless.
They are not very clear about the situation in Heyang, but they still have a vague understanding.
It has been more than a year since the Shao thieves invaded Helong, and the people from Guanzhong came to Meng and Huai to start farming. If they move quickly enough, they should have collected a lot of grain and grass. Coupled with the inventory transferred day and night, the military reserves in Heyang should still be very large.
Considerable, this is enough to support them in fighting a big war.
"If the Xia thieves attack, where will their main attack direction be?" Zhang Shensi asked again.
"Having fought with Shao for so long, you still don't understand his tricks?" Pang Shigu glanced at Zhang Shensi and sneered: "Shao is rigid in his tactics, so he knows how to hold on to Zhengqi's changes. He fights
, the main attack can become a feint attack, the feint attack can become the main attack, the craftsmanship is too strong."
After hearing this, Zhang Shensi could only be speechless.
After all, we have also fought in Heyang. Shao Thief's strange changes and his tactics of launching troops in several directions made us uncomfortable. He had too many cavalry. If he made a breakthrough with his partial division, he would be able to maneuver in a large area immediately.
Strengthen the troops along that route and turn the partial division into the main force.
What a disgusting way to play!
"So, there is no point in guessing which direction the Shao thief will attack." Pang Shigu was very disappointed. After analyzing and analyzing, he had to admit that Shao thief had a strategic advantage and was very flexible in the use of troops. Every war he launched was
Accumulating advantages for the next war.
In the second year of Dashun, he only sent out troops from Shaanxi and Guozhou. Ge Congzhou occupied Xiaoshan and did not dare to go deep. Later, he was forced to retreat by a hundred thousand troops led by King Liang himself.
Later, they launched wars in Nanyang and Heyang successively, constantly creating strategic advantages.
This year, he has captured all the Shen Guangshou states, which can threaten the hinterland of Cai and Ying. Today's Henan is full of loopholes. Tell me where he will focus his attack? It seems that he can attack anywhere.
"When will the Shao thieves attack?" Zhang Shensi couldn't help but ask.
"Actually, the war has already begun." Pang Shigu said: "Shao Thief will be testing and mobilizing. He wants to find out our deployment and response. Once he makes up his mind, I suspect he will launch a war of 100,000 people.
The above battles. Luoyang, Zhengzhou, Caizhou, and Yingzhou are all dangerous. Which direction do you dare to bet?"
"This thief!" Zhang Shensi punched the table hatefully and said, "We have only had a break for a few months and are we going to start another war?"