Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 474 Temptation

White waves, black water, heavy smoke.

On the blue waves of the Han River, densely packed boats go upstream along the southeast wind.

Each ship has a deep draft and is fully loaded with food, arrows, medicinal materials and other consumables.

It is more convenient to transport the army by water.

Fighting in Xiangzhou, leaving the transportation channel of Hanshui, it would be hard to think about it.

On both sides of the Han River, there are dense swamps, wetlands, forests and pastures, as well as the villages and farmland dotted in between, which is pleasing to the eye.

The development of the South has only just begun.

The greatest achievement since the Kingdom of China is probably to drain the swamps in some areas in the south of the Yangtze River and transform them into places suitable for human living and farming.

During the middle Tang Dynasty, Wuyue was one of the two major destinations for exiled prisoners and captured Hu people.But with the development of Jiangnan, it is now impossible for you to go to Jiangnan anymore—Shao ​​Dashuai conquered the land of Helong, and every time he would symbolically send the captured Qianghu nobles to Chang'an, hundreds or thousands of people at a time, basically It is assigned to Lingnan.

To be honest, the Jianghan area is less developed than Jiangdong and Jiangxi. At this time, there are dense swamps, crisscross rivers, more original ecology, and the environment is relatively "natural".

Taking a post road is better than taking a boat.

The strong southeast wind in summer quickly blew the fleet to the wharf outside Gucheng County.

Because there were too many ships to dock for a while, some of them had to be dispersed into small rivers with sufficient water depth nearby, and then the people were mobilized to unload on the spot.

There were more than [-] soldiers coming with the boat, all from Xiangyang, and Zhao Dewan, the governor of the military government, commanded the army.

Gu Cheng ordered Jingdao to lead people to carry drinks and drive pigs and sheep over to work in the army.

This person, in troubled times, has the ability to be both right and wrong!
"It's not necessary to respect the county magistrate." Zhao Dewan said with a serious face: "We have to enlist conscripts as soon as possible, and build a warehouse. It doesn't matter how good it is, as long as it lasts for a while."

That's what Zhao Dewan said, but under the signal of his eyes, the people below naturally accepted the wine, pigs and sheep.When going out to fight, of course the sergeants have to eat and drink well, otherwise what will happen if there is a commotion?
"The subordinates have already sent people to cut wood and build it." Jingdao replied.

"Can the county treasury still hold it?" Zhao Dewan asked again.

"You can still store [-] hu of grain." Jing Dao thought to himself that fortunately he sent a batch of grain to Xia Bandit, otherwise he really couldn't let it go.

Zhao Dewan glanced at him.This dog official was greedy for [-] hu grains, he is not small in courage!
But he didn't bother to care about it.

In these years, loyalty is more important than anything else.In comparison, everything else is trivial.

"Store [-] dendrobium grains in the city." Zhao Dewan ordered immediately.

He is still relatively strict in running the army, and the sergeants did not procrastinate, and followed suit immediately.

"Zhao Du will come from afar, why don't you go to the city to take a break, and your subordinates will prepare a little wine, and there will be a voice..."

"No need, this will not be good." Zhao Dewan waved his hand and said: "You may as well go by yourself, just leave someone here to obey."

After finishing speaking, Zhao Dewan went to the side and ordered the soldiers to bring the map and study it carefully.

The direction of Xia thief's escape is obvious, that is Xiaojiangkou stockade, which is a thief's den, and he must rely on the fortress to hold on.

That's how they played last time.

At that time, Zhezong had only three thousand soldiers, but was forced by his nephew's twenty thousand soldiers, he fled back immediately.If it wasn't for his brother's sudden death, he would have stormed Xia Thief's camp at that time.

Of course it is not easy to attack the Walled City, but what other options are there?Surrender discount book?

We can only gather an army to besiege!
And since it is necessary to attract a large army to besiege, it is necessary to set up a general grain platform on the front line to transfer grain, grass and supplies, and Gucheng County is very suitable.

Going up against the current and approaching Xiaojiangkou, the distance is not far.There will be more southeast winds in summer and abundant water, so only a few trackers are needed to deal with accidents, and most boats can sail with the wind to the outside of the village.

"Two of the three armies have gathered in Xiangyang, but Zhao Fan in Tangzhou is a little farther away, will they be defeated by each of them?" Zhao Dewan looked at the map, slightly worried.

The government army, state army, county town soldiers, and Tutuan villagers have mobilized a total of more than [-] people, so there is no room for loss!
Especially the more than [-] elite Yamen, which accounted for [-]% of the total number of Yamen.This battle can be described as a gamble, you can only win but not lose.And you have to fight quickly, and return to the station immediately after the fight, otherwise the Xuanwu army will take advantage of the situation and touch you, but you will cry without tears.

"Come here, send your cavalry to search more, and don't let go of any suspicious areas. Also, send an envoy to Kuanglin's army and let them be careful not to be taken advantage of by Xia's bandits." Zhao Dewan ordered again.

He knew that doing so would offend his nephew Zhao Kuanglin.He was able to succeed the governor of Tangzhou and lead the elite soldiers, so he obviously won the trust of his nephew Kuang Ning.But it is related to the Zhao family's foundation, so we have to be cautious, that's all we can do.

……

In fact, Zhe Zongben is not interested in defeating each one.

If one road is broken, if the other two roads are vigilant, they will slip away if they are not in order. Wouldn't it be a big deal?

It's better to gather them together and break them in one battle.

Seeing his side's cavalry wading across the river in a hurry, Zhe Zongben laughed and said, "If my son-in-law were here, he would definitely not fight like this. He must cut off the enemy's food first, and wait for the enemy to panic. Concentrate the elite main force to break through one road first, so that the enemy will be terrified, lose fighting spirit, and retreat in a hurry. Then pursue as many troops as possible. It is safe to fight in this way, but it is safe to fight, and the other two enemy troops will not It's too likely to hurt your bones."

Of course, Shao Dashuai's war may not be as simple as Zhezong originally thought.He has always used political and military means to cooperate with each other, not just focusing on the military level. It is normal for the two to think differently.

"Commander, the main force of the Loyalty Army has left Xiangyang and Dengcheng, and started to march westward. We captured a prisoner, and learned through interrogation that Zhao Kuangning personally led the army, with more than 1 people. His younger brother Kuangming led the troops to stay behind Xiangzhou." The head of the cavalry team immediately stepped forward to report regardless of the wound.

"More than 1? How much is 1?" Zhe Zongben was very dissatisfied with this imprecise number, and forced him to ask.

"The captives only know so much." The team leader felt ashamed.

"Forget it, let's rest immediately in the car and recover from your injuries." Zhe Zongben said with a slightly relaxed expression.

A few thousand more, a few thousand less, the problem is not big.Anyway, if the situation is not right, they still have a stronghold to hold on to.If the situation is right, defeat the enemy in a field battle and completely break the courage of the loyal army.

From July [-]th to July [-]th, for seven days, Zhezong led [-] cavalry to scout the enemy carefully, stayed outside for a while, then turned around and retreated to Xiaojiangkou.

They even abandoned a lot of goods on the road, which can paralyze the enemy army and make them think that they are buying road money, and can also hinder the pursuit of soldiers, which is the best of both worlds.

On July 21, the army finally returned to Xiaojiangkou Village.

"Starting today, the woodcutters will also stop." As soon as he came back, he ordered: "There is enough firewood in the city, and there is still coal from Jinzhou, so there is no need to go out."

"Of order." All the generals responded one after another.

"General Wang, the leopard cavalry don't need to do anything, but just recharge their batteries. If any horses are sick and unusable, the Weisheng Army still has [-] cavalry soldiers, and the horses can be chosen by you." Said to Wang Chong.

The horses of the Weisheng army may not be suitable for all leopard riders.But when he said that, Wang Chong was also very moved, and immediately responded: "Don't worry, Commander Zhe, the leopard riders are ready to fight at any time."

"It's hard to lure the fish here, it would be a pity to let it go away from the hook." After finishing speaking, Zhe Zongben looked at the sky again and said, "I hope the weather will be sunny in those few days."

Xiangzhou is densely covered with water networks, and it is really not easy to find a place that is conducive to cavalry.

The Xiaojiangkou area is originally a place where the water system is vertical and horizontal, but there happens to be a large open space outside the village, if the timing is right, it can be of great use.

……

Waiting is actually very boring, and the procrastination of the loyal army is beyond people's imagination.

Until July 25th, the scouts came to report that more than [-] vanguards of the bandit army appeared [-] miles east of the stockade.

Zhe Zongben led his men up to the high platform and watched carefully the military situation in the east.

The Loyalty Army is more cautious.

They first sent hundreds of people across a small river blocking the way, and then felled trees and set up fences to support the follow-up troops to cross the river.

After all the more than [-] people crossed the river, they set up another camp and stood firmly there, waiting for the follow-up army to arrive.

"Cai Bing hasn't lost his skills yet." Zhe Zongben looked at the vanguard of the Loyalty Army who had built a pontoon bridge on the river, and said with a smile: "It's all in vain, come here quickly, no one bullies anyone, fight hard one game."

All the generals were a little excited when they heard the words.

If you can fight in the field, who will defend the city!In the past, Dou Han, the governor of Hedong, heard that Li Guochang and his son had gone south to Xin and Dai, so he immediately "prepared for the rainy day" and dug trenches outside Jinyang to build a line of defense, which caused the army to despise him.

This kind of coward doesn't dare to fight the enemy face to face, and still wants to be a Jiedu envoy?
The atmosphere of the country is like this, of course there are city guards, but more people go out of the city to fight in the field.

It was Zhao Kuangning. In history, Zhu Quanzhong led an army to march south. He only had more than 2 soldiers, and he also led people to fight in the field. As a result, he was defeated by Yang Shihou at Xitong Mountain in Gucheng. .

On the 28th, Zhao Kuangning's large banner of the Chinese army appeared on the other side of the river.

The vanguard has built three pontoon bridges, and the army can easily cross the river.

At the same time, many ships came along the river, with masts like forests, flags and flags covering the sun, and the momentum was astonishing.

At least half of Shannan Dongdao's family property is here!

(End of this chapter)