Qian Song

Chapter 38 The Lesser of Two Evils

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Hearing the news that the Huben army was coming, Zhang Huiyan, the magistrate of Muzhou, wanted to hold on to the city and wait for rescue.

But under Zhang Huiyan, Ye Juzhong, the general judge of Muzhou, Cao Kuang, the magistrate of Jiande County, and Tongshu, the county Wei, were determined to compete with the Huben army.

When the Huben Front Army Selection Battalion led by commander Zhang Datie approached the city wall, Tong Shu saw that the Huben Army had only a thousand vanguard troops. After discussing with Zhang Huiyan and others, Tong Shu suddenly led the army to attack in an attempt to defeat the Selection Front Battalion. Under the city, let's win the first battle, boost the morale of the people in the city, and strengthen the determination of the people in the city to defend the city.

Not to mention, Zhang Datie, who didn't have much experience in commanding troops, really caught Tong Shu by surprise.

Not to mention anything else, Tong Shu's random shooting before they rushed forward caused a lot of casualties to the unprepared soldiers of the selection team.

Seeing this, Tong Shu immediately commanded the troops to attack the forward battalion.

At the same time, Zhang Datie finally came to his senses, and quickly ordered the mandarin duck formation to change its defensive formation so that those holding the long and rattan cards would come forward and prepare for the battle. The formation blocked and launched a counterattack to the Song army.

Not long after, the two sides fought hand to hand.

It has to be admitted that among the three classes of yamen servants led by Tong Shu and the armed landlords in the city, there are many brave and brave fighters, and some of them even have high martial arts skills. In addition, they also have more than 200 horse troops.

But the problem is that Tong Shu's leadership is not a regular army, but a patchwork army. Although they rushed over together, they always fight on their own in a mess.

In other words, the people led by Tong Shu are fierce, but they don't know how to fight at all.

Take the horse army led by Tong Shu as an example. Some people even rode horses and held swords to fight against the Huben army. The key point is that they did not show the advantages of the horse army such as fast speed, strong assault ability, and flexible mobility. , Their performance is like sitting on a horse and fighting with the generals of the Huben army.

As a result, the two sides fought for a while, and the soldiers of the Huben Army, who had initially mastered the mandarin duck formation and the three-three tactics, slowly began to gain the upper hand.

On the other hand, Tong Shu and the others, the more they fight, the more scared they become. Many people can't figure it out. This group of people are armed with messy weapons, and even put a gun head on a big bamboo and hang an iron point as a weapon. Only one or two percent of them are armored. The anti-thief is so powerful!

Seeing that their own troops were fighting less and less, Tong Shu and his gang finally knew that they had hit the iron plate, and then wanted to withdraw.

But at this moment, two more tiger and cardinal armies suddenly rushed out from one left and one right.

What shocked Tong Shu and his group even more was that a tiger and cardinal army composed of three to four hundred horsemen circled behind them at an extremely fast speed, blocking their way back to the city.

Tong Shu's group fell into the heavy siege of Huben's former army and Huben's horse army, and was beaten to pieces.

After a while, the middle camp and rear camp of Huben's front army also appeared one after another.

Seeing this, Tong Shu, who was lucky enough not to die, had to lead the miscellaneous army with less than three hundred remaining to surrender.

In this way, Jiande City, which has lost its main force, is like a beautiful woman who has stripped off, and Li Cun can go there at any time as long as he wants to.

Soon after, Tong Shu and others were tied up and sent to Niu Meng.

Niu Meng found out the general Tong Shu again, and then personally sent it to Li Cun to ask for credit and receive the reward.

When Li Cun learned that the Xuanfeng Battalion fought against a miscellaneous army with the assistance of the tiger and horse army, and suffered nearly a hundred casualties, he really wanted to slap Niu Meng who still had the face to ask for a reward.

You must know that the reason why the Selected Front Battalion can become the general vanguard of the Huben Army is because the soldiers of the Selected Front Battalion are all among the best in the Huben Army in terms of overall quality and training completion.

Moreover, Li Cun sent the Huben Horse Army to the Huben Front Army because he was worried that the Huben Front Army had no experience in fighting the enemy, and he also delegated the command to Niu Meng.

But just like that, Niu Meng and Zhang Datie lost nearly a hundred people. How did this battle happen?

But then again, Niu Meng and Zhang Datie won the battle after all.

Moreover, this is the first battle of the Huben army after leaving Qingxi, so we must not lose our spirit and let the morale of the Huben army be low.

Therefore, in the end, Li Cun rewarded Niu Meng and Zhang Datie in accordance with the reward and punishment regulations of the Huben Army.

However, Li Cun later explained that in the evening he would go to the selection camp to hold a post-war summary meeting. Generals and military supervisors above the first level must participate in this post-war summary meeting.

After sending Niu Meng away, Li Cun looked at Tong Shu: "Are you willing to surrender?"

Tong Shu was startled!
——He really didn't expect that Li Cun's persuasion to surrender would be so simple and straightforward!
Tong Shu tilted her head and let out a "hum", as if she was looking forward to death!
Seeing this, Li Cun stopped talking nonsense, and directly ordered: "Push it out and chop it up."

"?"

Tong Shu was startled, and hurriedly said, "Slow down!"

Li Cun asked, "Do you have anything else to say?"

"I……"

Tong Shu said in her heart: "If I have nothing to say, I will die. I only have one life. If I die, I will lose everything!"

Seeing Tong Shu's hesitant speech, Li Cun said impatiently, "I'll ask you one last time, are you willing to surrender?"

"I……"

Tong Shu wanted to surrender, but she still couldn't help herself.

Seeing this, Li Cun not only did not persuade Tong Shu anymore, but also said bluntly: "Don't tell me that I lied to you when you turn around. Let me explain to you first that if you surrender, you need to submit a certificate of nomination, otherwise I will still kill you." , so you still have to think about whether to surrender."

Hearing what Li Cun said, Tong Shu immediately realized that Li Cun really didn't care whether he surrendered or not, and that he would kill him if he dared not surrender.

Tong Shu looked up to the sky and sighed!
Just when Li Cun thought that Tong Shu was going to die heroically, Tong Shu suddenly said: "The villain is willing to persuade the people in Jiande City to surrender for the general."

The next thing is simple.

The high-ranking officials and nobles in Jiande City, who had nowhere to go, quickly surrendered under the leadership of Zhang Huiyan after they had Tong Shu's status.

Zhang Huiyan, Ye Juzhong and Cao Kui also played a trick on Li Cun and tied themselves up.

In this regard, Li Cun neither personally released Zhang Huiyan, Ye Juzhong, and Cao Wei, nor asked someone to kill Zhang Huiyan, Ye Juzhong, and Cao Wei directly. Instead, he asked Tong Shu to draw up a list of all those who participated in the resistance.

At the same time, Li Cun did not hide Tong Shu's back, and asked the rest of the surrenderers to draw up a list of people who would participate in the resistance.

In this way, naturally no one dares to cheat.

Later, Li Cun ordered that according to the list provided by Tong Shu and the others, anyone who participated in the resistance but refused to surrender would have their homes ransacked, the men would be beheaded, and the women would be rewarded to meritorious soldiers; anyone who participated in the resistance and surrendered would be ransacked and their families spared As for those who did not participate in the resistance, Qiu committed no crime.

Afterwards, Li Cun issued another order that no one in Jiande City had thought of, that is, except for the soldiers of the Huben Army who were stationed in Jiande City and carried out the task of confiscating their homes, the rest of the soldiers of the Huben Army, including himself, were not allowed to Enter the city to disturb the people.

As for the food, war horses, livestock, weapons, cloth, boats, iron bars, horns, cowhide, tendon, sheepskin, arrow shafts, feathers, etc. that Li Cun wanted, Li Cun had all of them except for the search of the official treasury and the sinner's house. Buy it from people in Jiande City, and the price is at least [-]% higher than the market price. For things that Li Cun is bound to get, such as ships and war horses, Li Cun directly doubled the price.

In other words, apart from liquidating those who dared to resist, Li Cun really did not offend others.

This undoubtedly made the people in the city breathe a sigh of relief.

In addition, Li Cun also asked people to open a place to recruit volunteers in front of the city gate, and asked a group of reserve supervisors to tell everyone the ideals, propositions and treatment of the Huben Army to everyone who was interested in joining the Huben Army.

At the same time, Li Cun asked Tong Shu to write for Li Cun.

Different from ordinary talent seeking, Li Cun not only seeks literati and generals, but also seeks craftsmen, boatmen, and people with various crafts.

It can almost be said that as long as there is a person with a skill, Li Cun wants it, and the treatment they give is very high.

But there is one thing, Li Cun only gives a three-day time limit whether it is recruiting troops or recruiting talents, and the day of the release is counted as one day-three days later, Li Cun will leave people to continue recruiting and recruiting talents, but this is chaotic. It is not easy to say whether the soldiers and talents recruited afterwards can successfully catch up with the large force of the Huben Army.

Someone asked, Li Cun did this because he didn't want recruits and talents?

wrong.

Big mistakes.

On the contrary, Li Cun absolutely needs more soldiers and is eager to seek talents, especially the latter.

Let's put it this way, although Jiande City was brought down, Li Cun had to reinstate Zhang Huiyan, Ye Juzhong, Cao Wei, and Tong Shu as temporary officials because there was no one to govern Jiande City.

——In order to ensure that Jiande City was under his own rule, Li Cun had to order the soldiers stationed in Jiande City to take care of Zhang Huiyan and others, that is, Zhang Huiyan and other former officials of Zhao Song Dynasty who were in charge of the people, and the soldiers of the Huben Army stationed in Jiande City Take care of Zhang Huiyan, the former officials of Zhao and Song Dynasties.

It's not that Li Cun doesn't know that if he does this, there will definitely be endless troubles.

But who made Li Cun have no management talents.

Could it be that Li Cun is to be governed by a big-headed soldier who doesn't know a few of these big characters?
Li Cun reckoned that if he really did this, he would soon make the people complain and even hate him to the bone.

Now, Li Cun did not dare to ask for anything else, he only hoped to recruit some frustrated literati, and then let these literati serve as staff officers of the remaining troops, lest these simple-minded big-headed soldiers be sold by these old Zhao Song officials. Help them count the money.

Some people may be puzzled, Li Cundu is already so short of talents, why it only takes three days to recruit talents?
That's because Li Cun has no time.

It is already November 24.

In one more month, it will be the first month, when Tong Guan will lead the most capable western army of the Zhao and Song Dynasty to go south.

Before that, Li Cun had to go to Zhenjiang to seal the passage of the Song army going south. If possible, Li Cun even wanted to go to the Huaihe River line to completely seal the Song army's southward passage from the east.

If Zhao Song can give Li Cun another chance, Li Cun will definitely go up the river and occupy Xiangyang and even the entire Jingxiang area by himself.

In such a short period of time, it is definitely a huge test to reach such a long distance in this era without advanced means of transportation.

Therefore, at this stage, Li Cun can only come as soon as possible.

Of course, it is impossible for Li Cun to manage the territory he has won all the time.

After Li Cun really laid down a territory of his own, Li Cun would definitely conduct imperial examinations to select talents.

Now, it can only be the lesser of two evils...

……

(End of this chapter)