The sun hung in the sky, with only a very weak red light, and even the fog could not dry out. In the wet city, there were panicked soldiers fleeing.
Li Gongquan, who had an army of 35,000 in his heyday, now had only seven or eight thousand men left. Most of the sergeants were not annihilated by the enemy, but ran away on their own.
There were three battles before and after. The first time was at the gate of Weizhou City. The vanguard was defeated by the Yamen soldiers. General Zhang Shenzhai was beheaded and more than 5,000 people were lost. The second time was in Shen County, but the battle was unfavorable and 2,000 soldiers were lost. The third time was at Bo.
When the city was west, Li Gongquan gathered his main force and tried to fight to the death. However, some people turned against him and fled in defeat.
This defeat wiped out the last bit of Li Gongquan's popularity. The sergeants either fled to the other side or went home on their own. There were even some ruthless people who wanted to take Li Gongquan's head as a tribute.
Therefore, he did not dare to stay in Bozhou City anymore, and hurriedly took his family and tribe to the north and rushed into Gaotang County.
"The government soldiers ran away, the town soldiers ran away, and when it came to the end, it was the Tutuan countrymen who didn't run away." Li Gongquan gave a wry smile twice and looked up to the sky with a long sigh.
The Tutuan countrymen were carrying heavy packages on their backs, following behind the convoy, and hurried on. After careful counting, there were more than two thousand people. There were more in the heavy fog in the distance. Can you keep up with the large army?
Whether they run away or not depends on their fate.
There were also some sergeants with Huazhou accents in the team who came over to join the army after hearing about Li Gongquan's uprising.
When Zhu Quanzhong was defeated by the Jin army, he ran away in a hurry. General Han Qing was killed, Li Zhen was captured and later beheaded. Wei Zhao also died in Weizhou and Jingxiang, and Wang Yanzhang was nowhere to be found. More than half of the Huazhou regiment brought by Zhu Quanzhong was killed or wounded.
, the rest collapsed.
Among the disintegrated soldiers, some took off their military uniforms and worked as clients for local people in Wei and Bozhou, while others scattered in the wilderness and became bandits. After Li Gongquan's uprising, these people got wind of it and came to surrender one after another.
It's a pity that they arrived too late. Li Gongquan had already lost two battles in a row and had no way to save himself. He was about to run away. It was impossible to bring these Huazhou people the wealth they wanted.
"Li Gongquan, please leave. Please lend me your head. I'll need it urgently." The sound of horse hooves sounded not far away, and dozens of horsemen swarmed after him, laughing.
Li Gongquan cursed and asked someone to fetch a big spear, then he got on his horse and planned to fight.
If we don't repel these people, people will be panicked, and we don't know how many people will be dispersed. Even if we want to escape to Henan, we have to have some capital, right?
At this moment, a horseman suddenly jumped out of the heavy fog, stabbing with his spear like lightning, killing two people instantly.
Li Gongquan opened his mouth wide and asked excitedly: "Who is this?"
The followers looked at each other in confusion. Who could see clearly in the fog?
After the horseman rushed into the fog, there were shouts, screams, the sound of arrows piercing the air, and the sound of swords clashing. Not long after, the man came back again, covered in blood, followed by several horsemen with frightened faces.
Rong, after chasing for a while, gave up. It seemed that the fight just now really left them with lingering fears.
Some people, if you give them tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, they may not be able to fight well, and may even lose more than they win. But if you give them thousands of soldiers, they will often be unstoppable and often kill enemies and capture the flag. Obviously, when they encounter
It's better not to get into trouble with such a strong man. Li Gongquan was just lucky enough to be able to recruit such a strong man.
Several people looked at each other unwillingly, and when they saw the horse turning around again, they were so frightened that they turned their horses' heads and turned around.
"What's your name?" Li Gongquan excitedly took off his sword and riding bow, and asked his soldiers to bring him a shining silver armor, saying: "A strong man doesn't even have armor, how can this be done? These instruments, armor
Ju, oh, by the way, there is also this horse, you can use it first. When we get to Qizhou, we will settle down and then we will reward the strong men again."
"I want to go to Qizhou..." The strong man looked complicated. After a long time, he sighed softly and said: "There is nowhere to go, so I might as well go back to Henan."
"Don't worry, King Xia always treats people generously. It's better for me to join him than to be a lonely ghost." Li Gongquan also sighed, as if he was trying to convince and comfort himself.
"My name is Wang Yanzhang, from Yunzhou. I don't mind mentioning the past..." Wang Yanzhang was a little less interested.
A man is born in heaven and earth, and always has the idea of doing something. At that time, King Liang was very famous and had the potential to unify Henan. But a man like Wang Yanzhang didn't even have a chance to serve as a yamen soldier in Yunzhou. He was furious
Joined the army in Bianzhou.
What happened after that - well, it was like a dream. Now after going round and round, I have to go back to Henan again. So what happened to the struggle in the past so many years? Did I make a detour? I am in my thirties.
, accomplish nothing, every time I think of it, I feel sad.
"The ferry has arrived! General Zheng's people are still there, and so is the pontoon bridge." Someone shouted from the front.
After hearing this, Li Gongquan perked up and said: "Quick! Quick! After crossing the river, Luo Shaowei will have nothing to do."
The rapid sound of horse hooves was heard again on the shore of the ferry. More than two hundred warriors, riding tall and sacred horses, were wandering on the shore and looking around. Unfortunately, it was foggy and they couldn't see anything clearly.
After a while, the leading general galloped over on horseback. When he got close, he reined in the horse lightly and asked condescendingly: "Where is General Li?"
Li Gongquan glanced at him suspiciously. This man was very young and did not look like a general. He was holding a horse stick in his hand. There was no secondary weapon in the sheath next to the saddle, but was neatly placed.
Several short throwing spears.
Wang Yanzhang glanced at this general. General Li Si'an of the Liang Army had a special skill in flying, but he didn't know what his abilities were.
"This is Li Gongquan. Do you dare to ask the general's name?" People had to bow their heads under the eaves. Li Gongquan also put away his unruly martial artist's temper and spoke condescendingly to this Xia Jun military officer.
"Wang Jiao, the ten generals of Qizhou, how many people are there in your department?" Wang Jiao looked at the shadowy figures in the fog in the distance and asked.
"This..." Li Gongquan was speechless for a moment and said vaguely: "There are still thousands of people."
"Do you have all the armor and equipment?" Wang Jiao asked again.
"this……"
"The establishment is in chaos?"
"Maybe."
"Trash!" Wang Jiao cursed angrily and said, "No wonder we have been defeated in battles. I don't know what your highness means by taking in useless people like you. I think your food and salary are in vain. Cross the river quickly and don't hesitate."
After that, he roared up with the cavalry behind him and got into the thick fog, as if he was going to stop the pursuers.
Wang Yanzhang looked at the energetic cavalry of the Xia army in fascination, and then at the demoralized countrymen of the Wei Bo Tuan regiment beside him, and shook his head, saying that one person is more likely to die than the other.
"Cross the river!" Li Gongquan choked so much that he couldn't help but get on the pontoon in anger.
The sergeants were also in high spirits, quickened their pace, and rushed to the ferry.
Someone stopped before crossing the river and looked west of the river.
I don’t know if there will be a chance to fight back in the future. In order to become a martial artist, I have to sacrifice my family and my career. I just hope it will be worth it.
****
When Desheng crossed to the north bank, Peng Shengjun was fetching water for cooking.
Wei Bo was in chaos, and soldiers from all over the country were all mobilized. There were not even a few people left at the key defense points such as Desheng Ferry. Zhu Zhen took an advantage - two thousand vanguards crossed the river at night, attacked in a sneak attack and seized the ferry on the north bank, killing hundreds of Wei soldiers.
The remaining people, and then another 3,000 people crossed the river and began to set up camp.
According to the order of King Xia, they wanted to contact Li Gongquan and cooperate with each other in fighting. However, they were defeated too quickly and simply, and they were so courageous that they ran away to Gaotang, leaving Zhu Zhen helpless.
To be honest, he didn't want to fight or fight with the Wei soldiers. With such a small amount of money in hand, as many people as possible could pay as much as they wanted. If one person was missing, the superiors would stop paying one person's salary. Zhu Zhen had no doubt about this.
"It's actually not a good job for He Gui to go to the Dingyuan Army to be a military envoy." Zhu Zhen walked in the camp and said: "One of the old troops started by the King of Xia was dumped by such an outsider to take the lead. It is estimated within the Dingyuan Army
They are all old-fashioned."
Promotions often involve not one person, but a series of people. When the top person leaves, the people below can also move their positions. It can be said that all are promoted. With He Gui gone like this, it will definitely
Those within the Yuan Army who want to move their positions are probably scolding their mothers. Whether they can reorganize the army will test their military management skills.
"Lieutenant..." Gao Shao stopped talking.
Zhu Zhen looked at his gloomy face and laughed and scolded: "Shao Shude is wasting away people, excluding dissidents, even complaining? Zhang Jun and Guo Shaobin led the army to fight. Although they can't be said to be very brave, they
It's quite satisfactory. After fighting for more than half a year, the team is gone. The two of them want to go to Kansai to be the governor, and the governor has trouble even appointing the generals of the state army. I don't know what the point is."
The appointments of Zhang Jun and Guo Shaobin have been announced. The former has been appointed governor of Gyeongju and the latter governor of Junzhou. When they heard that they were each rewarded with two thousand pieces of silk before leaving, Zhang Jun and Guo Shaobin "wept with gratitude", but that was just superficial.
, as for what they think in their hearts, only they themselves know.
Anyway, Zhu Zhen felt worthless for them.
"The King of Xia really killed all the vassal towns." Gao Shao also sighed with emotion: "I heard that after the founding of the country, the King of Xia would give Zhang Jun and Guo Shaobin satisfactory titles. They were probably county marquises. According to the old rule of the same Yuan Dynasty, no titles would be reduced for three generations.
, to appease them. However, the two of them are not very old, and they may still be used after one or two turns in the position of governor."
"You said that in front of me, maybe you have a deep meaning?" Zhu Zhen said with a smile.
"Taiwei, the time has passed." Gao Shao said: "With Taiwei's many years of experience in running the army and using soldiers, isn't it easy to capture him with some merit? It is very possible that he will be promoted to the title of county or even county prince in the future."
"This is asking me to sacrifice my old brother's life in exchange for the position of Duke." Zhu Zhen sighed: "The Holy Army has been defeated, and it has been defeated, which is the credit of my Zhu family. Such a rich man, this is forcing
Everyone makes a choice."
"Lieutenant, this is actually the only way out at the moment. If we continue like this, we may be criticized by the King of Xia." Gao Shao reminded.
"Let's first take a look at the situation in the two battlefields of Qingzhou and Weizhou. If King Xia can really eliminate Wang Shifan and Zhu Jin, and defeat Luo Hongxin, his father and his son, and even Li Keyong, I will put aside all kinds of distracting thoughts and fight hard."
Zhu Zhen said: "With so many people from Liang, Hu is really dead-set. Ge Congzhou, Xie Yanzhang and his son also seem to be relatively respectful. Dai Siyuan, Wang Tan, Hua Wenqi, Liu Zhijun, Ding Hui and others, I think they are also very respectful."
The contradictions have not completely returned to our hearts. Sometimes I hope that Shao Shude will suffer a big defeat or two, which will make people's hearts turbulent."
Gao Shao smiled bitterly. He was a scribe, not as courageous as the warriors, nor as ambitious.
This time King Xia revoked the designations of Tianxing and Jianrui armies in one fell swoop, and his intention to consolidate military power could be said to be undisguised. To cut down vassal vassals, the vassals of prefectures and counties are vassals, and the vassals of military leaders are also vassals. Through these few years
According to daily observation, it didn't seem to cause any major disturbances. Shao Lun, He Gui, Zhang Jun, and Guo Shaobin all agreed, and it seemed that things were going smoothly.
This success must have inspired King Xia. I wonder what methods he will resort to next time.