Chapter 965: Miscellaneous Soldiers and Grain Stealing
Being at ease is what Shao Shude is in now.
This does not mean that he can definitely win, but that he can afford to lose.
Being able to afford to lose is a huge advantage in itself.
There are more and more signs that Li Keyong's move south was a hasty dispatch of troops. He only ended the war with the Khitan in October last year, and returned to Jinyang at the end of November. It has only been more than two months since he rested.
The mobilization of the main force will take time. It is estimated that preparations will start now, and a large-scale deployment will not be possible until March. The ones going south this time are just the original garrison of Lanshi and Zelu, so it is not a big problem.
The Heiji Army has been subordinated to the Jiangzhou camp. The Feilong Army has not yet received the order, and Lu Huaizhong has not made any corresponding requests. One is because of supply problems, and the other is because Cixi's terrain is dominated by continuous mountains, and there are not many
It is suitable for cavalry sports, and it would be in vain to go there.
The local area is not even suitable for large-scale infantry battles. The real decisive victory is probably a small-scale infantry battle in units of thousands.
But there is actually a good breakthrough point there.
Cixi is a mountainous area, and Lanshi is also a mountainous area. The starting point of Shao Shude's career is there, and he is very familiar with that terrain. If he can defeat Li Keyong in the mountainous area and capture the two states of Lanshi, he can attack Li Keyong from the flanks.
By exerting pressure, although it is only a deflection, it can also contain some of the troops.
"All Li Hang's request is granted." Shao Shude ordered: "After this battle, let the left and right wings of the Xiejie Army switch defense zones."
On the left side of the Xiaojie Army are soldiers from Xiangwei, who are from Hebei. On the right side are soldiers from Puzhou, who are from Hedong.
Swapping each other is also a test of obedience.
I'm not raising you to serve as a local garrison. You can't leave the town to fight. If you're going to be fighting outside for a long time, you might as well be dismissed.
"Yes." Zhao Guangfeng, who had officially moved to Luoyang to work, responded and immediately asked his staff to handle it.
He did not expect not to accept any soldiers when he took back Hezhong Town, but 10,000 people were still too many.
The reorganization of the Forbidden Army is now becoming more and more clear: six infantry armies and six cavalry armies.
The infantry has already assembled, including Tielin, Wuwei, Tianxiong, Yicong, Tujiang, and Tiande, totaling 180,000 people.
The cavalry army has also been decided: flying dragons, black armor, gold swords, iron cavalry, silver spears, and difficulty, a total of 90,000 cavalry.
In addition to the Fei Xiong, Yin An, Cong Ma Zhi and other troops, the total number of forbidden troops is more than 280,000.
"But you think there are too many troops?" Shao Shude saw Zhao Guangfeng's worry and said to himself: "Indeed. After the founding of the country, there will be another wave of elimination of the weak and leaving the strong."
He couldn't help but pick up Zhu Quanzhong's wool again. After he conquered Ziqing Town, he owned the entire Henan Road, the entire Shannan East Road, most of Guanzhong, and parts of Hebei Road, Huainan Road, and Jiangnan West Road. Not counting local troops, the main force
The field force has reached its peak of twenty tens of thousands.
In the end, we vigorously eliminated the weak and retained the strong, and only 134,000 people were retained, who were the first Bianliang Forbidden Army.
This courage is very great.
There is no record in history where the troops that Zhu Quanzhong had reduced went. Shao Shude guessed that they should have gone to prefectures and counties.
These state and county soldiers were repeatedly recorded in Zhu Quanzhong's later campaigns, appearing in the form of several soldiers from a certain state.
There is no record in history how Zhu Quanzhong persuaded these warriors. But it was nothing more than purging the veteran generals, along with the middle-level officers who followed them. Then he dispersed the warriors and incorporated them into state and county soldiers. They suppressed the rebellion when it happened, which is quite similar to Su Cizu.
The great purge of the Red Army.
Li Keyong couldn't do this, and Li Cunxu couldn't do it either. Zhu Quanzhong did it. This five-generation pathfinder is indeed amazing.
Of course, after the Great Purge, the combat effectiveness of Liang Jun was indeed hard to describe. The battle situation was getting worse day by day, and Hedong was gradually unable to be suppressed. This should be taken as a lesson.
Shao Shude's current territory is larger than Zhu Quanzhong's, with a slightly smaller population, because the population and economic strength of Helong and northwest Beijing are far inferior to those of Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Weibo, Chengde, Cangjing, Yiding and other Houliang directly affiliated and vassal states.
Compared with feudal towns.
The money and grain provided to Zhu Quanzhong every year by Weibo, a vassal vassal town, is comparable to that of Guanbei. It is also convenient to transport. It does not have to pass through the Shanxi-Shaanxi Grand Canyon and Mengmen when the money and grain from Guanbei are transported by ship.
Stone troughs and other ghost gates, not to mention Chengde, Cangjing, and Yi Ding were all defeated, and they all came up as ministers.
"Six infantry armies can't hold back." Shao Shude sighed and said: "Give Li Hang an order not to accept everyone, but to screen them carefully. I gave him 10,000 troops, but I don't have to use them all."
"Yes." Zhao Guangfeng understood Shao Shude's intention and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Speaking of this, how many Yan soldiers have been captured this month?" Shao Shude asked.
The war against Yanzhou Zhu Jin resumed at the end of the first year.
Li Tangbin mobilized two infantry troops and four cavalry troops in the left wing of the Tielin Army. A total of 6,000 infantry troops marched north to Dizhou. At the same time, he also transferred 2,000 Qizhou state soldiers. Together with more than 1,000 soldiers from Dizhou, a total of 9,000 people were mobilized.
The rest of them fought with Lu Yanwei.
The remaining troops of Tielin Army's left wing stayed behind in Ziqing Town to suppress the local area.
The right wing and the Yi Congjun marched south to Mizhou. Tens of thousands of people pressed forward and defeated Wang Maozhang's tribe of the Huai Army. His general Li Qianyu asked Wang Maozhang to gather the defeated troops and leave first. After leading his troops to fight to the death, they were surrounded in Yizhou City.
Li Tangbin led more than 20,000 men to attack Yizhou. He also sent Ye Liyu with more than 10,000 troops to pursue Wang Maozhang southward and entered Haizhou.
The Huai soldiers retreated in a panic, not daring to look north, and were chased all the way to the gates of Haizhou City.
Eight miscellaneous armies, including Longxiang, Longhu, and Pengsheng, besieged Zhu Jin. Since February, they had fought several battles with each other winning or losing. However, Zhu Jin did not have many soldiers. He went out to fight less and less frequently, and he gradually lost the ability to fight back.
.
Zhu Jin still had to go out of the city to fight with inferior troops, not because he was brave, but because he wanted to collect as much grain and grass from surrounding counties as possible and transport it to Yanzhou City.
It's hard to do anything now, otherwise it's just a matter of time and effort, and defeat is inevitable sooner or later.
"Go back to your Majesty and capture three thousand people." Zhao Guangfeng replied.
"Select a thousand strong men and send them to Luoyang. The rest will be repelled and dispersed. If you dare to cause rebellion, you will be severely suppressed." Shao Shude made up his mind not to accept these miscellaneous soldiers and horses.
He was not even willing to let them do labor because it was not worth wasting the tight food supply.
"How many troops do Hu Zhen have among his troops?"
"Dragon Xiang's army is eight thousand, Longhu's army is six thousand, Guangsheng's army is five thousand, Shenjie's army is six thousand, Peng's army is more than five thousand, Longwu's army is twelve thousand, Peng's army is more than nine thousand, and Zhongwu's army is three thousand.
, there are still more than 50,000 people."
"In a few days, I will go to Yanzhou to review the troops. These soldiers have been fighting for a year, so it's time to give them a little sweetness," Shao Shude said.
As for what the sweetness is, we have to add it all together, because it involves political balance and exchange of interests, and we have to consider everything.
"Your Majesty, Li Keyong is heading south at any time. Don't move lightly at this time." Zhao Guangfeng reminded.
"Of course it's not this time. I have to continue to train the 30,000 Tiande Army." Shao Shude said: "Over in Jinyang, I expect Li Keyong also has a headache now. It's difficult for me to attack him, but it will be easy for him to attack me?
This time it will be fine if he attacks Heyang or defends me; if he fights me in the middle of the river, I will make him look good."
******
"It's strange! It's so strange that we've been fighting until now. We've all been Pu soldiers, and Xia soldiers haven't shown up yet. It's really strange." Li Chengsi rode into Xizhou City with a puzzled look on his face.
An Yuanxin, Li Sibi, Shi Jingrong and other generals followed him with different expressions.
Among the generals, An Yuanxin was the older one. The King of Jin had paid attention to him in his early years and given him many opportunities. Unfortunately, he was defeated by the Xia people in the battle of Xuanhongchi. It took a few more years and his luck was gone.
Not good, gradually falling behind.
This time I finally got the opportunity to follow Li Chengsi on the expedition, although they actually started at the same time.
"Dutou, most of the Xia soldiers are still suppressing the rebels in Hezhong Mansion. Li Diancheng has a lot of soldiers, and it is possible that he was unable to take them in his hurry." An Yuanxin pondered for a moment and said.
"You have been guarding Shizhou for many years. You should know that the Xia bandits have a lot of troops in the river. There are always 40,000 or 50,000 people. If you recruit local braves, there will be tens of thousands more." Li Chengsi said: "
Even if Zelu restrains some of them, there are still a lot of soldiers that can be used. This battle is not going well, and I am a little worried. After lunch, you wait for everyone to return to the troops, gather the scattered soldiers, and advance together, it is better to be careful."
"As ordered." An Yuanxin, Li Sibi, and Shi Jingrong responded in unison.
The three of them each have three to four thousand soldiers, and they are currently scattered everywhere to loot grain and grass. Li Chengsi has slightly more soldiers, only five thousand, and they have gathered near Xizhou.
But the terrain here is very unpleasant. Just like Yandan on the other side of the river, it has thousands of ravines. If it were not blocked by the Yellow River in the middle, it would be completely the same terrain as Hengshan.
"Cixi Mountain is a continuous mountain. Be careful and don't let anyone get close to you without knowing it." Li Chengsi warned again.
In fact, he himself is not very happy to send troops from this direction. The main reason is that in mountainous areas, there are not many places where large forces can be deployed, and the terrain is very complex. In addition to the post roads, there are also criss-crossing trails.
There are high plateaus on both sides, and standing on them you can overlook the road in the deep valley - yes, this is actually part of the Loess Plateau.
But the King of Jin decided to send troops from now on, march south to Cixi, and attack the river directly to echo Li Diancheng.
The more than 10,000 of them were just the first wave of soldiers and horses. Kang Junli took charge of the main force and left Jinyang. They had already arrived in Lanzhou and were waiting for supplies of food, grass and equipment. They would head south to Shizhou in a few days.
As for what the King of Jin himself does, he naturally has his own concerns.
In the afternoon, An Yuanxin and the others left Xizhou. Li Chengsi sat in the state office, looking at the map in front of him, frowning in deep thought.
Xizhou was not rich, and the army did not receive much food and grass. They raided the countryside and robbed everything they could. The income was still limited, but it was enough to support three months.
Alas, food! Li Chengsi felt a little headache.
After fighting for so many years, food and grass supplies have always been a chronic problem restricting the Jin army. This is not because of poverty. No matter how poor the people are, how can they still lack the army? As long as you want to transfer, the rear can always send it to you.
The real problem is style and habits.
Because sending food to the enemy was an important means for the various departments of the Jin army to replenish food and grass, both the older generation and the new generation of generals liked to go to the enemy's territory to snatch supplies, which often easily intensified conflicts and made the local people resentful.
Transfer some of it to the rear, plunder and plunder some of it, and seize some of it from the enemy. These are basically the three major sources.
Li Chengsi looked at the map. On the other side of Xizhou is Yanzhou. Do you want to go over and grab one?
However, the current in this section of the river is very fast, and it looks frozen. However, some sections of the river can be walked, and some sections of the river cannot be walked. If you are not careful, the ice will break and fall, so you have to calculate it carefully. And it is February.
It was late in the day and the river was not safe. The ice had broken in some places. After thinking about it for a long time, I finally gave up.
However, this is good, as the Xia army cannot cross the river here, eliminating a flank threat.
"It's better to scrape three feet of the ground first and continue to collect grain." Li Chengsi slapped his thigh and made a decision.