Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 478 The Key
"Marshal, Pei Sui is here." In the Xiaojiangkou military city, the soldiers came to report.

"The supervising army is here, you guys, please restrain yourself." Zhe Zongben joked, then changed into his military uniform, and greeted him at the pier in person.

"Pei Sui Shi" is Pei Yuan, the county magistrate of Sanyuan many years ago, and later defected to Shao Shude, and moved through the prefecture and county system. One envoy: Shannan Road envoy.

Recruiting envoys, as the name suggests, recruit surrender and accept rebellion.But in fact, there is another layer of identity: supervising the army.

This is something everyone understands, but doesn't say it out loud.

Pei Yuan's current official is the governor of Yanzhou, and his successor is Cheng Rui who was transferred to Shangzhou.

However, Pei Yuan will not actually take up the post, and his main job next will be to act as a fan beside Zhe Zongben, and at the same time recruit all kinds of miscellaneous soldiers to serve the great cause of the Shuofang Army.

Officials and dispatchers are in a mess, and the origin of the separatist rule of the feudal town is helpless.

Since the hardships, the official system of the country has begun to develop in a strange direction, and now there are frequent chaos.After the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty, the chaos will reach its peak.

It is also powerless to want to change, because you have no name.

Marshal Shao's official official is nothing more than the governor of Lingzhou. The envoys of Shuofang Jiedu, Guanbei Sidao, etc., are strictly dispatched, so-called "envoys".

Marshal Shao's subordinates, like Li Yanling and Ren Yuji, are theoretically equal to him.

Everyone is Jiedushi, no one is higher than anyone else.

This is the lack of name.

But the county kings and even the princes of the country do not have the power to feudalize the country and establish a system, they are just a kind of honor and title.

Jiedushi system limitations!
The imperial court deliberately pretended to be deaf and dumb, and was so happy to avoid the expansion of the feudal town, although this is already an unstoppable trend now.

Shao Shude realized the danger many years ago.

Names are sometimes useless and sometimes useful.

At that time, fighting for the command and establishment of envoys in the four capitals of Guanbei was a manifestation of this worry, but they were still not satisfied and felt that it was not safe enough. The four towns of De and Zhenwu were merged and led by him.

Shuofang Shizhou is now the most powerful feudal town in the ruling area.There is not much to say about the strength of the troops. Other towns have only a few thousand state soldiers, but Shuofang Town has more than 15 field troops, and they are still stationed in Weibei, Huazhou, Shanguo, Shannan West Road, Fengxiang, Longyou, Hexi and other towns , is the advantage of rolling.

In terms of population, there is currently no feudal town comparable to the ten prefectures in Shuofang.

This model of strong stems and weak branches has been implemented until now and has worked well, but there are still some shortcomings.

In the next step, Shao Shude is also thinking of ways to see how to move further under the existing framework.

Although both Shao Shude and Zhu Quanzhong are very dissatisfied with this framework, for now, everyone is still enduring it, and no one dares to throw it away.

I can only wait for the opportunity slowly.

"Zhe Shuai." Before the ship was even steady, Pei Yuan hurriedly saluted with a very respectful attitude.

Zhe Zongben returned a gift.

He noticed that there were quite a few ships coming this time, not only bringing supplies, but also many people.

In addition to the civil officials, there is also a guard team composed of a hundred soldiers, each with a crossbow machine and a Mo knife.

This is the private guard of the recruiting envoy. It is said that they are all descendants of Lingzhou Feng, Zhao, Qiu, Song, Weicai, Yeli, and Muzang, and they come out to practice with the envoy.

"I just heard that Zhe Shuai won a big victory and captured and beheaded more than [-] thieves. This really shocked me." After getting off the boat, the two went to the military city. Pei Yuan said in a tone of surprise and admiration: "With this great victory, the matter of appeasement will be much easier, and this is all thanks to the commander in chief."

"The first achievement in this battle was Li Yanling of Jinzhou. It was he who raised a lot of money and food. This made me make up my mind to send troops south to fight the enemy and finally won this victory."

"He Ziqian, Zheshuai?" Pei Yuan smiled and said, "I have also heard about the tyrannical combat power of the Weisheng Army. In the final analysis, military struggles have to be fought one by one with swords and guns. To defeat the enemy in an array, one should be the most proud of a warrior For this matter, Zhe Shuai has made great contributions to this battle."

Zhe Zongben smiled and stopped arguing.

After the two entered a house, they were seated separately.

"Zhao Kuanglin has agreed to surrender, but his son Zhao Cen led the troops to stay in Suizhou. It is hard to say whether he will surrender in the end." Zhe Zongben said: "The more than two thousand bandit troops stationed in Gucheng escaped by boat overnight. Please surrender the city. The two generals Wang Chong and Zheconggu led cavalry soldiers eastward to Xiangyang, Dengcheng County surrendered, and Yicheng County sent envoys to contact them, expressing their willingness to surrender. The gates of Xiangyang, Nanzhang, and Yiqing counties were closed and they refused to surrender. , Lexiang County is far away, and no one has been sent there yet.”

Of the seven counties in Xiangzhou, two counties have already surrendered, one county seems to be surrendering, the attitude of one county is unclear, and three counties are definitely not surrendering.However, this may be because only the cavalry is currently marching eastward, and more than [-] infantry troops are still on their way, and the speed is relatively slow, and there may be changes in the future.

"Zhao Fan, the governor of Tangzhou, has fled back to Biyang. This time he brought over 8000 infantry and thousands of cavalry, but only [-] people fled back. Of the [-] people, half of them were Yamen, and they suffered heavy losses. Today's Tang There are about [-] yamen troops in the prefecture, and most of them are infantry. The prefectural and county soldiers have been wiped out, and the local peasants are temporarily recruited to guard the city, which can be described as extremely dangerous."

"Xiangzhou dispatched [-] cavalry, halfway back, and now there are about [-] government troops and [-] state and county soldiers. They are already frightened and dare not fight again."

"The Suizhou army is almost completely wiped out. There are probably two or three thousand state and county soldiers left, and their strength is greatly weakened."

"Ying Prefecture, the main forces of the prefecture and county soldiers are all lost, and hundreds of them have gone back. The place is empty, and they can be taken lightly."

"Only Dengzhou still has more than [-] yamen troops and more than [-] prefectural and county soldiers, and their strength is relatively complete."

Zhe Zongben introduced the situation of the seven states in Shannan after the battle one by one. After hearing this, Pei Yuan was very excited.

The result was so great that no one expected it.

In the previous deduction of the generals of the Duyuhou Division, it may take about two years of hard fighting to successfully eat Fang, Deng and other states, and make an emergency landing in Xiangzhou, and also face the complicated changes brought about by the intervention of the Xuanwu Army.

But what is the situation now?Suizhou is very likely to surrender, Yingzhou is empty, but it can be taken smoothly, Fangzhou is isolated to the west, even if it does not surrender, it will eventually fail.If you count Junzhou captured from Feng Xingxi, the four states in the northwest and southeast of Xiangzhen will be taken directly.

Waves kill people!

"What's the situation in Fangzhou now?" Pei Yuan asked.

"Recently Li Bo, the envoy of the Zhaoxin Army's right wing, fought against Sun Dian again. He sent weak soldiers to fight, retreated after losing, and deliberately left gold beads on the road. Fangzhou soldiers fought for it. When they were defeated, they beheaded hundreds." Zhe Zongben also shook his head for those old nest thieves in Jinzhou, saying: "Li Bai probably doesn't have many soldiers at hand. Dingyuan's army has already entered Fangzhou, and Sun Dian should not be able to make a big wave. If he doesn't surrender, he can only defend Fangling to the death. , there is no other way."

"It may be said that it is coming." Pei Yuan said.

"It depends on Pei Shijun's means." Zhe Zongben said with a smile: "But from my point of view, the focus is not even on Xiangyang, but on Tang and Deng."

"This is true knowledge and insights." Pei Yuan also smiled and said, "Tang and Deng are really the key."

……

On July 29th in the third year of Dashun, it was sunny.

In the city of Xiangyang, people were in a panic and panicked three times a day.

Since the navy fled back to Hanyin Station with the defeated soldiers, thousands of people rushed into Xiangyang City in a chaotic manner.

Zhao Kuangming, who stayed behind in Xiangzhou, sent people to take in and rectify, and at the same time sent envoys to various prefectures and counties, ordering him to recruit local peasants, rectify the defense, and prepare for a decisive battle.

Zhao Kuangning returned to Xiangyang with a sigh.

He thought a lot along the way, but in the end he was full of regrets.

Why do I want to fight?Isn't it good to play steadily?
It's a pity that there is no regret medicine in the world. If you lose, you lose. This is a fact and cannot be undone.What should be done now is to face the reality, clean up people's hearts, rectify the remnants, and prevent the situation from deteriorating.

"Second brother, Brother Yu asked someone to count the treasury yesterday, and decided to pay 30 strings and [-] pieces of silk, and humbly offer generous gifts in exchange for the Zongben to withdraw from the army." In the study, Zhao Kuangning summoned his younger brother to discuss secretly.

Xiangyang, as the central node for supplying goods in some feudal towns in the south, is also an important commercial town itself, and there is no shortage of goods.Even though Zhao's father and son are not very good at governing the local area, but their foundation is there, it is not a problem to spend 40 yuan.

"Brother, Ruo Zhezong didn't want to retreat at all? There are more than ten thousand of them, and there are even thousands of armored cavalry. They are extremely powerful. If we are determined to attack and plunder the place, we will not be able to stop it." Ah." Zhao Kuangming said.

This is indeed a cause for concern.

Zhe Zongben may not be able to break through a big city like Xiangyang, and it is also difficult to get a strong city like Tang, Deng, and others, but he can plunder the countryside.What can we do with them when they lose their ability to fight in the field?
Moreover, he should have recruited a large number of surrendered troops.If you learn from Qin Zongquan in the past, use his headquarters as the backbone to reorganize and surrender troops, and then encircle the young and strong in the local areas to fight like a snowball, and more than [-] people will be at your fingertips.

10,000+ people attacked the city, excluding casualties.Who can stand up to a batch of dead men and healthy women who will be attacked again and again?
"If he doesn't want to retreat, then send someone to Bianzhou to ask Zhu Quanzhong for help." Zhao Kuangning said firmly, obviously made up his mind.

Zhao Kuangming remained silent.

Zhe Zong originally cannibalized, so Zhu Quanzhong stopped cannibalizing?

But this can't be helped, who suffered a big defeat?
Introducing Bianjun forces into Xiangyang is extremely risky, but it also has advantages, that is, it can be more confident when bargaining with Zhezongben, or it can make it less aggressive, and finally negotiate a plan that everyone can accept.

"The three prefectures of Tang, Deng, and Sui are the most important. My brother has already sent the shogunate to go there quickly. They are all members of the Zhao family. When the first king was alive, he took good care of them. In this critical autumn of life and death, how can you bear to bear the burden?" I'll go." Speaking of this, Zhao Kuangning was also a little sentimental.The foundation laid down by the old father has only been handed over to him for a few months, but it has fallen to this point.

The key of the key now is to stabilize the three states of Tang, Deng, and Sui first.

(End of this chapter)