There were only 500 of them, and they had no city walls, only barracks. It was impossible to defend them. When they learned that Yecheng had launched a brutal offensive and defensive battle, the logical plan was to run away. Going east to Linzhang was really not an option.
Then he fled back to Weizhou.
But they were unlucky. After they took to the road out of breath, their formation was not in order and their equipment was incomplete. They were immediately attacked by cavalry and taken away in a wave.
After dealing with this group of enemies, the cavalry continued to move around, keeping a close eye on the direction of Cizhou to be wary of Jin troops who might move south.
After a day and a night, the siege of Yecheng finally came to an end.
Yang Baoyu, who had no more than a thousand soldiers under his command, couldn't hold on any longer. He left his men behind and broke out of the city under the cover of his own soldiers. He was eventually intercepted at Wanjinyi in the north of the city. Dozens of his people died.
Wanjinyi is not very far away from Fushui. During the Qianyuan period, Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi and others led an army of 200,000 in the Nine Festivals to surround Anqingxu with tens of thousands of remaining soldiers in Yecheng. Shi Siming led 130,000 horses to come to the rescue, and the two sides fought at Wanqingxu.
Jinyi.
The Hsiaojie Army took the lead in pouring into the city. Facing the stubborn soldiers, they showed no mercy and massacred them wantonly.
"Thieves! What's the point of killing one of your own?" a wounded soldier yelled before dying.
The warrior of the Houtiao Army looked slightly ashamed, but his men did not stop and stabbed him with a spear, and the wounded soldier was taken care of.
"On Tuesday, I've eaten in the same pot with you, are you going to do something now? Haha! I'll wait for you below."
"Wang Silang, your brother-in-law was in the Six Heroes Army, and he helped you when he was young. It's important for you to kill me, but when we meet your brother-in-law in the future, will we also fight with weapons?"
"Shao thieves divided our vassal, and all the warriors in the past had to live a hard life. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, Changzheng Jian'er was recruited from Qingzhou and went to Anxi. He was thousands of miles away from his hometown. When he came back, he was gray-haired and didn't even have any relatives.
Here we are. If you want to live like this, just go and be a dog for Shao Thief, and I will fight with you."
"I served in the army for seventeen years, and I didn't return until I was forty. I met strangers in my hometown, and there was no such person in my family... Hahaha, you can just be dogs. I'll make a profit by killing each one."
"This is how the princes, generals and ministers enslave our warriors. I am willing to surrender."
Because of the Xiang Bing's resistance, the Xiujie Army also used real fire, using swords and axes, and blood flowed all over the long street. If Shao Shude hadn't stopped him in time, they probably could have killed all the Xiang Bing, and even affected the whole country.
Special people.
Before the killing ended, the atmosphere was very light. The remaining soldiers were trembling, and the military personnel of the Imperial Army also had a sense of failure. There was a depressing atmosphere everywhere.
"That's nonsense." Zhang Qiyuan kicked away a bloody corpse and said angrily: "Xia Wang Rende, the sergeants sent to the Qingtang and Helong garrison are rotated every two years, so there is no need to spread rumors. Eat.
What if you take the warrior's rice bowl and take such a small amount of money to go out and guard the border for two or eight years?"
Everyone's expressions brightened slightly.
Zhao Guangfeng sighed. Everything that today's warriors have, to a certain extent, they have obtained by killing generals and driving commanders. How can they have such generous military pay? They have been beaten for a long time.
When people see it.
Two thousand soldiers from Xuzhou were sent to garrison Jiaozhi, and 400 of them were guarding Guilin. It was agreed that they would be rotated every eight years, but in the end, there were still people to take over the defense after seven years. This challenged the bottom line of all military men, and killing officials and rebelling became inevitable.
But what about the comparison? It is an isolated phenomenon that he joined the army at the age of seventeen and was merged in his forties. When the gray-haired veteran returned to his hometown, he saw only luxuriant grass in the courtyard, and the grass under the graves at the head of the village was old and low.
When the meal is ready, you know who to eat it with, and you can only cry at the sunset alone.
Now the life of warriors is much better than after the Anshi Rebellion. But it seems that it is too much, and it must be adjusted back. King Xia is not cruel, and the rotation is every two years. The soldiers during the rest period can go home and spend time with their families.
Reunion is actually possible.
"How many people are left?" Zhao Guangfeng asked, calming down.
The sergeants gathered together the remaining surrendered soldiers, roughly speaking, and there were about 800 soldiers left.
"Recruit the army. Everything you should let them know is vague." Zhao Guangfeng ordered.
The eight hundred surrendered soldiers were in shock, and they all breathed a sigh of relief when they heard that they could survive.
There is no small fear between life and death. When the sword and ax are held to the neck, few people are generous and heroic. But when it comes to the last moment, everyone can face it calmly.
Before adding 800 men to the army, the Hsiaojie army barely recovered to 7,000 men. It can be seen that the losses in the subsequent battles were indeed very small.
"Huo Junshi is a man of great wisdom." Zhang Qiyuan praised.
Zhao Guangfeng saluted him and went to comfort the wounded soldiers.
****
On the seventh day of April, Huo Liangsi personally led the main force to Ye County.
"The Battle of Xiangzhou during the Qianyuan period was a pity. Seven hundred thousand troops were raised in four quarters, but the victory was ultimately defeated, creating today's situation." Huo Liangsi climbed to the top of the city of Ye County, overlooking the small land of Hebei, and said with emotion.
The outcome of the Battle of Xiangzhou directly determined whether Tang Ting could regain Hebei, but this main battle was won.
Is there a unified commander? In fact, if the eunuch Yu Chaoen really has power, then at most there will be no one who can keep his word, but he is just a coordinator, capable of commanding the army, and standing at the critical moment
Guo Ziyi aside.
In the two sieges of Weizhou and Xiangzhou, the 700,000-strong army was already exhausted. Shi Siming led the 180,000-strong army that had been resting for a long time. The strategy was used properly, taking advantage of the internal harmony of the Tang army, the unity of opinions, and the color of each army's uniforms.
They knew each other's strengths, and they used 70,000 infantry and cavalry to defeat the Tang army.
The impact of this battle is far-reaching and cannot be measured.
Li Tangbin, Xie Tong, Shao Shude, Zhao Guangfeng and others all thought about it after hearing this. Every move of the subordinates will be repeatedly speculated and considered by the people above.
"Xiao Wang, are you saying that the Jin people will let Wei Bo weaken our army's strength and morale first, and then launch a small attack to defeat me in one fell swoop?" Zhang Qiyuan, who had the lowest status, asked first.
"If there is any kind of battle in the world that consumes the most energy, it must be a siege. If I attack cities one by one and wait until Li Keyong leads a small army, how many percent of our army's combat strength will be left?
Most of them are wrong." Zhang Qiyuan said: "Before we take Linzhang County, we have to reorganize the camp, troops and horses, and the strength of the troops has been stretched to the extreme, so we can act indiscriminately."
"Xiao Wang, we still have to slow down the war in one direction." Li Tangbin reminded.
Zhang Qiyuan's words have two meanings. One is that fighting for half a year costs a lot of money, and the other is that Kang Yanxiao has been in charge of the army for a long time and it is time to let him come back.
Now Wang Shifan is still resolute. Zizhou has only an isolated city left with young Liu Wei being surrounded. He is incompetent. He delayed in preparing few supplies and his defense was leaky.
The deputy envoy of the Tielin Army, Ye Liyu, led the Tielin, Tianxing, and Pengri Eighth Armies to dig eight layers of trenches and attack day and night. The former two suffered very little consumption and basically lost their combat effectiveness.
Huo Liangsi had just given an order, Tianxing, and the seven armies of Pengri were merged into the Pengri Army, with a total of eight thousand soldiers. The military envoy Dai Siyuan and the deputy envoy Li Renhan.
Shao Lun, the envoy of Tianxing Army, was transferred to the governor of Chenzhou, and He Gui, the deputy envoy, was transferred to the envoy of Dingyuan Army.
The miscellaneous army has consumed another one...
But to be honest, Xiaojia has no eyesight, and it will be over if he consumes more, so Huo Liangsi no longer has the order to restrain Zhang Qiyuan.
The new Japanese troops also retreated to Caozhou for training, and their resentment was slightly reduced.
Wang Shifan's main force suffered several defeats in Qingzhou, and now focuses on defense. The first is to deploy key points inside Bochang City, a node of the Jishui waterway, and the seventh is to use military strongholds in the Laiwu Gukou, Yidu, and Linqu areas.
Fortress defense.
Shao Bo, the governor of Dizhou, led 7,000 men to the south and, with the cooperation of the Zhongwu Army, broke through the enemy camp on the north bank of Jishui River.
The deputy envoy of the Yanei Army, Han Zhu, also came down with 7,000 people as a reserve force. Together with the remaining 8,000 people of the Jianrui Army and the Dingnan Army, they narrowly defeated the enemy in Bochang City. Recently, they were besieging seven Latin places.
city.
Kang Yanxiao led Liu Zhijun's troops of the Dragon and Tiger Army to go north, holding more than 80,000 men, and pressed them to Qingzhou City. On the first day of April, the rebel army went out of the city to fight once. It was a profit, so they closed the door and defended themselves.
Zhao Liang, the governor of Mizhou under the jurisdiction of Taining Army, led his army to reinforce Qingzhou, but was defeated by Feilong Army and killed in formation.
Qibizhang has led his headquarters to pursue Mizhou and assist Tang County. Guo Chubin, the governor of Yizhou, volunteered and led 8,000 men eastward to capture Juxian County, intending to retreat with Qibizhang from north to south and advance to Mizhou.
There are only seven counties in Mizhou, and the household registration is still over 100,000, but the fall is imminent.
Qi Banzhang's Feilong Army shone brightly, using their mobility to continuously defeat enemy troops and achieving outstanding military exploits. Huo Liangsi had already made an appointment with him, and Shao Mingyi, the seventh son of Princess Zhe's family, would marry Qi Banzhang's grandson.
As soon as the son and son grow up, they will get married immediately.
For the sake of his small business, Huo Liangsi decisively sold one of his sons.
"The National Defense Army has returned to the river, and there are only two thousand Jianrui Army left, right?" Zhang Qiyuan suddenly asked.
The Jianrui Army originally had no ten thousand men, but they marched eastward to a thousand. Before the continuous campaign, the losses were quite small. They sent 2,700 men to Wang Tan, and the remaining men were just over 8,000, and now they have fully 8,000.
"Yes, there are still more than 7,800 people." Li Tangbin replied.
"Let them march to Zhongdu to rest and recuperate. Then send a secret order to Hu Zhen and Ge Congzhou. The remaining Jianrui Army will supply the Guangsheng, Shenjie, and Longxiang Eighth Army, and let them be prepared. If there is no disturbance, they will suppress it."
Huo Liangsi said: "Think again about the placement plan for Guo Shaobin and Zhang Jun before the designation of the Jianrui Army was revoked. The titles before the founding of the People's Republic of China were not too shabby. There were not many surrendered troops, and the small families were all
Look at it."
"As ordered." Li Tangbin responded.
Since the Eastern Expedition, the Jianrui and Tianxing Seven Armies have been established. They are loyal to the military and protect the country, but their vitality has been slightly damaged. The mood of the surrendered generals really needs to be comforted. However, everyone is in danger, and there will be no one to protect them.
Rebel. In fact, there is no small possibility that no one will rebel now, but these miscellaneous soldiers have to be consumed, and the ability to grasp the proportion is really a test of the political level.
"Your Majesty, the general has posted a recruitment notice in the city. How many people should we recruit?" Shao, Zhao and the seven others were discussing the consumption of the miscellaneous army. Zhao Guangfeng, the leader of the newly emerged miscellaneous army, came again. Seven people
Suddenly there was something to say.
"I know that Wei Bo's martial arts is at its peak, and Tu Tuan villagers are also outstanding in their skills, so let's recruit as many as possible. Yu Yu is an ambitious person, and anyone who wants to be a martial artist can recruit him. It's also said that he has passed away.
, the family moved to Tangzhou." Huo Liangsi said.
The state army is a local army and can be treated with some liberality. However, the Xiaojie army is a field army and it is possible for family members to stay in Weibo.
"Before Linzhang County takes over, you can also recruit troops." After Huo Liangsi said this, he took Zhao Guangfeng's hand and said: "On the day when the city was broken, you showed small righteousness to the surrender, and you did a great job.
Good. Wei Bo's warriors have no worries. The first is trust in the Kansai generals. The seventh is worried about losing their livelihood. The eighth is afraid of losing privileges. The seventh is afraid of traveling far away and being homeless. The seventh is worried about the people in the home.
Exorbitant levies and wanton killings...I can agree to some of their conditions, and some of them are not. It's good that you can tell Jiang Ren the facts about the world."
"The palace is wise and powerful, and it is unstoppable to swallow up the power of the sky. At the same time, it cares for the people and treats the soldiers well. In terms of governance in the palace, Zhang Qi Wufu only lost some privileges that he should not have, and his life is definitely not too bad. In the end, we will see
Out of sight, I am no longer with the world, so I am willing to work with all my heart and serve with all my strength." Zhao Guangfeng replied in a low voice.
"If there are fewer people like you in the eight states and seventy-eight counties of Weibo, then I will be less nervous." Huo Liangsi said with a smile: "The army will be worth 10,000. We can recruit while fighting. It will be a good practice."