Xiao Fu is preparing to go on an expedition again, this time with Pang Shigu.
The Battle of Luoyang resulted in tens of thousands of casualties, including the most elite Changzhi Army. The news was tightly blocked at first, but the Heluo defenders were not wiped out after all. Some people always escaped, so the news gradually spread and many people knew about it.
.
There is no doubt that this is a huge blow to the prestige of King Liang. Combined with the fact that throughout last year, the Xia cavalry troops were galloping across Henan, as if they were in an uninhabited land, many people have already wondered whether Bianzhou is in danger.
Is the huge Xuanwu military and political clique about to collapse?
It may be an exaggeration to say that people are panicked, but it is also true that uneasiness is spreading. Especially the families of sergeants, they have been particularly worried about their fathers, husbands, and sons in recent years, fearing that they would accidentally die in battle and the family would lose the backbone of their family.
Xiao Fu is a person with a delicate mind. He is keenly aware of this emotion, but there is nothing he can do about it. If the current situation is like this, everyone is asking for their own blessings, what else can they do?
Before leaving, Xiao Fu held a small banquet at his home and invited some friends, all of whom were relatively easy to talk to and had good friendships with.
"Is the virtuous son-in-law about to go on an expedition?" Xiao Fu asked.
"Yes, I will be leaving for Caozhou in a few days." Xie Yanzhang was a little unhappy.
Ge Congzhou, Xie Yanzhang and his son were sent here and there, conquering the east and the west, and fighting in the north and south. To be honest, they made a lot of achievements and repeatedly defeated the enemy. Li Ke used his gang of volunteers
Son, the generals are probably afraid of this nest thief who was born as a Liang general, but what is outrageous is that Ge Congzhou can only lead a partial division now, and has no chance to take charge of the overall situation as a general commander.
It is said that the King of Liang likes to promote newcomers and suppress the elderly, but Ge Congzhou and his son, because they were born in the Shangrang faction, do not seem to be very favored. They are neither newcomers nor old people, so their status is very embarrassing.
"It's actually good to go to Caozhou." Xiao Fu said something meaningless. Xie Yanzhang remained silent. Wang Yanzhang, who had been drinking beside him, couldn't help but look up.
Only Pei Di was still drinking and eating. He was too lazy to care about such nonsense.
When he first heard that the Liang King's war was not going well, he was also very worried. He kept thinking of ways and offering suggestions. However, most of the suggestions he gave were not adopted, and over time, his heart faded away.
In the past few days, he heard the news that King Xia came to Luoyang and saw the captured Hu Zhen. He comforted him with gentle words and had a happy conversation. Hu Zhen was also impressed by King Xia's magnanimity and happily took up the post of consulting the King of Xia to join the army.
, to advise the King of Xia.
Who is Hu Zhen? The first group of old men who followed the King of Liang, they served as governors of Hua and Luo towns, and the inside story of Bianliang was revealed to the King of Xia at a glance.
I don’t know how this matter spread to Bianzhou. Logically speaking, it did not spread so quickly. It may have been spread intentionally by the Xia people. But no matter what, Pei Di believed it to be true, because the King of Liang was once furious and wanted to kill the entire Hu Zhen clan.
Of course, King Liang has the ability to distinguish between true and false. If he is so angry, it is probably true. Pei Di thought about it carefully, and his mind changed a little.
Fighting is a matter for military men, so what does it have to do with us civil servants? There are not many benefits, and they are ridiculed as "hairy awls". Once the military tribute is not raised in time, it is easy to be treated as a doormat.
It seems that the King of Xia does not despise the civil servants. Wei Zhaodu and Du Rangneng can both go out to the town to serve as commanders, just like the King of Liang asked Zhang Tingfan to go out to the town of Xuzhou. Both of them are heroes in the world. If the King of Liang is in trouble, there is nothing wrong with surrendering to the King of Xia.
, it is better than letting those murderous and cruel warriors take over the world.
"Over in Caozhou, if we can capture and kill Liang Hanyong, Shao's son-in-law, it will be a great achievement." Wang Yanzhang suddenly said.
Xiao Fu smiled and said, "It's not that easy."
Xie Yanzhang nodded seriously: "The thieves are everywhere, they rob and run away, and they never stay in one place for a long time. If they are really forced to lose their footing, they can still run to Zhu Jin, Zhu Xuan, and Zhe Silun."
Rest on the territory, and then take a detour to fight back."
"It's hard to guard against." Pei Di made a rare comment.
Wang Yanzhang was speechless and didn't know what to say. Everyone's fighting spirit was not very high.
"Come, drink!" Xiao Fu stood up in person, filled Wang Yanzhang's glass with wine, and said with a smile.
Wang Yanzhang seemed to him to be quite loyal, and he has never forgotten King Liang's kindness in banishing him.
In fact, when King Liang awarded him the title of captain, he just did it casually because he saw that he was strong in martial arts and not afraid of death. He forgot about it later. Otherwise, how could Wang Yanzhang have wasted so many years in the army?
He finally became a Bianzhou Yamen officer based on his accumulated military exploits. He was also one of many mid-level officers and did not have the real power to lead troops. Compared with when he led troops to fight in the army, it is difficult to say whether he has been promoted or demoted.
King Liang recruited 3,000 brave men from wealthy families in Bianzhou to build the Xia capital. After joining forces with his allies to drive away the Xia thieves, he built another Xia army. The number of troops doubled to 6,000. Wang Yanzhang finally took charge of the capital.
Commanding an envoy and commanding thousands of troops, he reached a new height in his military career.
For such a small kindness, Wang Yanzhang was so grateful that he almost died for the king of Liang. Xiao Fu was also very emotional about this. Any general would be ecstatic if he got such a subordinate, right?
Wang Yanzhang took a big sip unhappily, looked at everyone in the room, and said: "Although the war is unfavorable, we can't surrender it at once. The Po Xia army is about to go west, and I don't believe that the Xia thieves have three heads and six arms."
Like Xiao Fu, the Poxia Army will also follow Pang Shigu on the expedition.
Pang has been appointed as the defense envoy of Meng and Zhengdu, and Ding Hui has been appointed as the military envoy of the Youguo Army. Their mission is to block the attack route of the Xia thieves and wait for an opportunity to regain Heluo.
It can be seen from the name of the job that Pang Shigu's main task is defense, but in fact Zhu Quanzhong gave him a lot of freedom. If Pang Shigu insisted, Zhu Quanzhong might give him more troops, and then join forces with Wei Bo to go north
Invading Heyang.
Everyone can see that relying on the defense is too passive. Taking the initiative to attack and criticizing the weak may bring a slight improvement to the war situation. But I don’t know how many troops Shao has deployed in Heyang. This needs to be investigated clearly in advance, otherwise it will be completely
Just give away the head. Guda
In short, Xiao Fu is not very optimistic about taking the initiative to attack. Who knows what will happen to Wei Bo's gang of soldiers? He resists going out of town to fight from the bottom of his heart, and his morale can be imagined, but don't be fooled by them.
"General Wang is so brave, you should have another drink." Xiao Fu picked up the wine bottle and said with a smile.
Wang Yanzhang didn't refuse and drank it all in one gulp.
Xie Yanzhang glanced at him.
The Poxia Army has felt humiliated since they were taught a lesson in Bianzhou North. They have been vigorously reorganizing and training hard recently. The skills of these rich men are not bad, they can even be called proficient. Their problem lies in their morale.
.If it can really be sorted out, it will be a warworthy army.
It's just that the military commander Zhao Lin is very weak and relies entirely on his family's help to get to the position. However, Wang Yanzhang, Du Yanqiu, Liu Qi and others are all good players. I hope they can practice it, otherwise this situation will be really...
…
Liang Hanyong led 5,000 Feilong troops and more than 2,000 Guanbei Tibetan soldiers all the way eastward. After more than ten battles, they finally broke through the interception and arrived in Puzhou.
In fact, they also took advantage of Qi Banzhang. His tens of thousands of men broke into Xuzhou southward and greatly pulled Liang Jun southward. Otherwise, they would not have been able to break through Zhu Zhen's interception in Caozhou.
In addition, I don’t know if it’s an illusion. Liang Hanyong always felt that Zhu Zhen didn’t try his best, didn’t dare to take risks, and didn’t have the will to leave them behind despite suffering heavy losses. He slowed down at the critical moment, not thinking that the fish would die and the net would be broken.
Seven or eight thousand of them arrived in Puzhou successfully.
Shao Lun, the governor, did not dare to go out of the city to greet them, but quietly sent someone to deliver a batch of supplies at night. In the middle of the night, he even left the city himself and arrived at Liang Hanyong's camp.
"General Liang."
"Shijun Shao."
"What does Zhu Xuan mean?" After the ceremony, Liang Hanyong asked straight to the point.
"General Liang doesn't know something." Shao Lun also had a bitter look on his face and said: "Seeing that Quanzhong was in great embarrassment, Commander Zhu secretly sent envoys to Bianzhou to make peace, and strictly ordered us not to provoke. Even Liu Zhijun still occupied Puzhou.
The county doesn’t care.”
Liang Hanyong realized the complexity of the matter.
Before the Battle of Luoyang, Zhu Xuan had actually stopped the war with Zhu Quanzhong. After the Battle of Luoyang, the news spread was certainly not that fast for the lower class, but for people like Zhu Xuan who were paying attention to the war situation in the west all day long
, it is not difficult to get a rough idea of the situation.
He may not be able to know the full picture of this war, which lasted only ten days, but it is still clear that Zhu Quanzhong suffered a heavy loss of troops and lost the Yiluo Valley, which is enough to make a judgment.
A bunch of killers!
You scold Zhu Quan Zhongen all day long for taking revenge, and you don't even think about who sent people to help you resist the Liang army. Now that you see the Xia army is strong and the Liang people have been defeated, your attitude suddenly changes, which is extremely hateful.
A bunch of shameless people! There is no moral integrity at all.
"That's all, Zhu Xuan doesn't want to interfere, and I'm too lazy to care about him. There's only one thing going on today. Our army is attacking the Liang people and needs to rest and resupply in Puzhou. Is there any problem?" Liang Hanyong asked.
"I'm afraid it's a bit difficult." Shao Lun said hesitantly, "Zhu Shuai probably won't allow it."
"Hmph!" Liang Hanyong suddenly changed his face and said angrily: "Zhu Xuan is shameless, maybe Shao Shijun can think of a way?"
Shao Lun hesitated even more.
"If you are rich, you have to take risks." Liang Hanyong suddenly smiled and said seductively: "Who can't contribute to peace? If you want to be the adopted son of the Xia King and enter the genealogy, Shao Shijun doesn't want to think of a way?"
"Does General Liang have any strategies?" Shao Lun asked.
"I dare to ask Shao Shijun, not everyone in the town is willing to make peace with Quanzhong, right?" Liang Hanyong asked rhetorically.
"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have sent the envoy secretly." If Shao Lun realized something, he looked a little struggling.
"It's pretty much what I thought." Liang Hanyong smiled and said, "Quan Zhong killed tens of thousands of Yuncheng's children before and after. How can we just say that this account will be ignored? What's the reason? Zhu Xuan still treats Shao Shijun
Trust me, there may be an opportunity here.”
Shaolun was silent for a long time. The candlelight in the tent flickered on and off, making his face look particularly ferocious and gloomy.
"This matter needs long-term consideration." After a long time, Shao Lun sighed: "It's not that simple. We have to wait for the opportunity."
"It's good that Mr. Shao has this kind of intention. If the big thing comes true, my husband will be very happy after hearing this." Liang Hanyong said with a smile.