Fenghou

Orihiko shook his head quickly, "It wasn't the nest ship tactic, the nest ship tactic didn't work, he broke through the water city gate and entered the city from the water city gate."

Li Gang was stunned, "Does he still have two strategies?"

"It should be, and attacking the water city gate is the real strategy. He personally led the army to attack the water city gate. It is said that he smashed the iron fence of the water city gate with a ramming boat. The iron fence has been in disrepair for a long time and is rotten. , was discovered by Chen Qing and seized the opportunity."

Li Gang felt a little uncomfortable in his heart, but soon he was relieved, this is the real general, who has achieved the ultimate in strategic deception, even his own coach, if he told himself too soon, maybe his own army There will be a change, which will be seen by the other party.

At this time, the sound of running footsteps came from the tent, and a soldier reported, "Report to the Xuan Fu envoy, Chen Qing sent someone to see him!"

"Announce him in!"

Soon a person walked in from outside the tent, it was Zhao Xiaoyi, the deputy commander of the scout battalion, who came to see Li Gang under Chen Qing's order.

Zhao Xiaoyi knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See Xuanfu envoy!"

Li Gang knew Zhao Xiaoyi, nodded and smiled, "So it's General Zhao, what's the matter with your family?"

"Dutong implores the Xuan Fu envoy to send troops immediately to surround the west gate, and make sure to stop the enemy from escaping."

Li Gang came to his senses, and quickly confronted Zheyan: "You immediately lead an army of [-] to the west gate to intercept the enemy's escape!"

"Follow the order!"

Zhe Yanzhi took the arrow and turned away, Li Gang then asked Zhao Xiaoyi with a smile, "General Zhao, tell me in detail, how did your family break through the water gate?"

……

Although Zheng Ping's army was in the west city, they withdrew Chen Qing's west camp. The west camp was very empty, with only one thousand logistics troops. If the enemy took the opportunity to capture it, the consequences would be serious.

Zheng Pinghe's [-] troops wanted to defend the camp, so they did not go to surround the defeated army at the west gate.

Dong Xian had already realized that Xiangyang was difficult to protect, so he took advantage of the opportunity of Chen Qing's main force entering the city through the Shuicheng gate, and ordered to open the west gate to escape. He knew that Chen Qing was guarding the west city, and his main force was inside the city, so the outside of the west city must be empty.

Dong Xian's judgment was correct. There was no army outside the west city to intercept them. Dong Xian didn't care about attacking Chen Qing's camp. He immediately led an army of [-] to retreat to Fangzhou. No matter how much the emperor blamed him, he admitted it.

But when Orihiko led the army to arrive, most of the defenders in the city had been transferred away, and they only intercepted the [-]-tail army. Excluding the soldiers who died in battle, there was no puppet Qi army in the city.

Chapter 335 Chase

Chen Qing's [-] troops invaded the city and quickly occupied key points such as warehouses, barracks, government offices, and city gates.

But to Chen Qing's surprise, the puppet Qi army did not collapse, but retreated out of the city in an orderly manner. It can be seen that Dong Xian made a lot of preparations for the retreat in advance.

What made Chen Qing unacceptable was that Dong Xian also carried a large amount of strategic materials during his retreat. All the bags of kerosene were taken away, as well as gunpowder. At least half of the kerosene and all the gunpowder were taken away.

This is also the strategic material that Chen Qing is eyeing. He ordered Hu Yanyun to bring the remaining [-] catties of kerosene back to the ship to transport away, and seal up all other warehouse materials and hand them over to Li Gang.

Chen Qing personally led [-] cavalrymen out of the city gate from the northern city, and chased west...

Originally, Dong Xian wanted to retreat, and Chen Qing didn't really care about it, so he left as soon as he wanted to, but Dong Xian took away strategic resources such as kerosene and gunpowder, which touched Chen Qing's vital interests. How could he tolerate?

It was already dawn, and Dong Xian's [-] troops retreated all the way westward, about [-] miles away from Xiangyang, and the team entered the mountainous area.

Dong Xian had already prepared for this evacuation. He even made a prophecy. He also specially recruited [-] mules, took away [-] bags of kerosene and [-] barrels of gunpowder, and other grains and the like were only dry food.

Like Chen Qing, he regarded kerosene and gunpowder as extremely important strategic materials, which were all materials left over from the Song Dynasty. In this battle of Jingxiang, he took away half of Bianliang's total inventory.

Other grains and the like can be grown. For strategic materials such as kerosene and gunpowder, the Qi State has no source of raw materials and no purification technology, so the little stock in it is extremely precious.

After another thirty miles of walking, it was almost noon, and there was a stream not far away, but a thin layer of ice formed on the surface. Dong Xian ordered the whole army to rest in place. The soldiers were tired and hungry, and they ran to fetch water and food. dry food.

Although Dong Xian was also very tired, he was still very happy in his heart. This time he retreated in an orderly manner, the [-] main force was saved, at least he could give the emperor an explanation.

At this time, a general came over and said: "Beizhi just went to the Han River to have a look. The river is relatively shallow and not wide. I suggest you don't use Fangzhou and build a pontoon bridge to cross the river."

"How far is Hanshui from here?" Dong Xian asked.

"Not far, just three miles to the north."

Dong Xian heard that it was only three miles away, so he got up and said with a smile, "Go and see!"

Not long after, Dong Xian brought a group of generals to the bank of the Han River. Compared with the wide and mighty Han River in Xiangyang, the Han River here is indeed much narrower, and it is not much wider than the moat. If it is spring and summer, The water here may be very strong and the current is fast, but now it is winter, the water here is much lower and the current is gentle.

A soldier tested the water depth with a bamboo pole and shouted: "It's only three feet deep!"

The riverside is only three feet deep, and the center of the river is at most one foot deep, and it looks like it’s only twenty feet wide. It would be great if we could cross the river here, so we don’t have to take a long detour to Fangzhou.

"How to build the floating bridge here?" Dong Xian asked the generals.

Ding Wenlan, the commander in chief, said with a smile: "Marshal, it is very simple to make a pontoon bridge. It is to cut down trees, tie them into rafts, connect them back and forth, put them into the river, and then fix the two sections on land. The ready-made pontoon bridge is It's done."

Dong Xian nodded, and said to Ding Wenlan: "You led five thousand brothers to chop down trees to make a pontoon bridge, and successfully crossed the river. I will remember your great contribution!"

"Follow the order!"

Ding Wenlan took five thousand troops to the forest to cut trees.

But not long after Ding Wenlan's army had left, a spy rushed over and reported in a hurry: "Marshal Qi, about 8000 cavalrymen of the Song Army were found ten miles to the south!"

Dong Xian was taken aback, and immediately got up and shouted, "Order the whole army to assemble!"

Hearing that there were seven or eight thousand cavalry, the whole team panicked and got up and assembled one after another.

At this time, Dong Xian also saw black spots in the distance, densely packed, how many are there?He knew in his heart that there was only one cavalry of the Song Army, and that was Chen Qing's cavalry, and they came after them unexpectedly.

A general stepped forward and said, "Marshal, it's a little strange. Normally, the Song army should attack us while we're resting, but they didn't do that. Do they want to attack us while we're crossing the river?"

"marshal!"

A commander rushed over, holding an arrow letter in his hand, "This is an arrow letter from the other party!"

Dong Xian took the letter in a hurry, only to see that it said, "Yue, Ezhen Fushi, Du Tongzhi, Jing Guogong Chen Qing to Puppet Qi Marshal Dong Xian." '

Sure enough, it was a letter from Chen Qing. He quickly opened the letter and read it carefully. After a long while, he smiled wryly and said to a group of generals surrounded by him: "He told us to leave all the kerosene and gunpowder, so he can let us go. otherwise……"

"Otherwise what will happen?" the generals asked.

Dong Xian sighed, "He is nicknamed Human Devil, what do you think will happen to him?"

Unexpectedly, none of the generals jumped up and shouted, but unexpectedly fell silent.

Everyone knows that if an army of [-] is fighting with seven or eight thousand cavalry, it is basically impossible to win, and they are in a losing position now, and dragging them will drag them to death.

Dong Xian saw the meaning of the crowd, and everyone wanted to return to their hearts, and they didn't want to fight anymore.

He pondered for a moment, then sighed and said, "Chen Qing's request is not too high, kerosene and gunpowder are belongings outside the body, so it's fine if you can't take it away, so let's do it! I'll send someone to talk to him, I guess he I don't want to fight either."

……

Chen Qing is not a bloodthirsty person, and his mission is not to destroy the puppet Qi. Of course, he also has to consider the cost. Dong Xian's 2 troops are not a rout, but a kind of withdrawal. The morale and combat effectiveness of this kind of army are still there. He wiped out these [-] people, and he himself had to pay the price of two or three thousand cavalry.

He didn't want to waste his precious cavalry on this kind of meaningless battle, so as long as the other party was willing to leave the kerosene and gunpowder behind, Chen Qing could let them live.

At this time, the soldiers brought up a civil official, who was about 30 years old and looked very gentle. He looked like a scholar.

The civil official bowed and said, "Han Xiu is here. Marshal Dong joined the army under his tent. On the orders of the marshal, he came to confirm some things with Chen Dutong."

Chen Qing asked coldly: "What does your marshal need to confirm?"

"If we hand over the kerosene and gunpowder to Du Tong, will Du Tong turn around and leave?"

Chen Qing nodded, "The premise is to hand over all the kerosene and gunpowder to me. I have checked the quantity in Cangcheng. If there are [-] bags of kerosene and [-] barrels of gunpowder, one bag or one barrel will not work."

"If you hand over everything, of course, there's no point in keeping any of it. My marshal said that he will hand it over to Dutong along with [-] mules. The condition is that Dutong will leave immediately, and we will go our separate ways."

"Yes, I can promise!"

Han Xiu saluted, turned and left.

Yang Zaixing said to Chen Qing worriedly: "If you let them go, I'm afraid I won't be able to explain to the Xuanfu envoy."

Chen Qing said lightly: "You have to understand that we didn't receive any order to go north from Baling. The Xuan Fu envoy just hoped that we could go north to support. Every battle we went north was decided by ourselves, including our Attacking Xiangyang, and now chasing Dong Xian's army, have nothing to do with Xuanfu envoy."

Yang Zaixing sighed softly and said: "Xiaozhi understands the meaning of Dutong. We are an independent army, which is different from other Huguang armies. I am just a little worried. The imperial court will not tolerate our independence forever. system is not good."

Chen Qing smiled slightly, "You don't have to worry, Zhang Jun, Liu Guangshi, Han Shizhong, and Yue Fei are all independent troops, and it won't be our turn until we finish solving them."

Yang Zaixing wanted to say something more, but he also knew that it was meaningless to discuss this issue now, so he didn't say any more.

Half an hour later, hundreds of soldiers came over with [-] mules loaded with kerosene and gunpowder, and handed them over to Chen Qing.

Chen Qing confirmed that the kerosene and gunpowder were correct, and then led the army to turn around and go east.

Dong Xian's army crossed the Han River overnight and retreated to the north. A few days later, Li Gang's army recovered Fangzhou, Junzhou, Dengzhou, Suizhou and Guanghua Army.

The battle of Jingxiang, which lasted for two months, finally ended with the disastrous defeat of the puppet Qi army...

Chapter 336 Exchange

The defeat of the puppet Qi army also left behind a large amount of supplies. The food alone was as much as 50 shi. Of course, 20 shi of these grains were the official food of Jingxiang and counties, and were all mobilized to Xiangyang by the puppet Qi army. , In addition to food, there are 30 guan of money, 5 taels of silver, 30 bolts of cloth, tents, weapons, gongs and drums, military flags, horses and other supplies.

This attack on Jingxiang consumed almost half of the puppet Qi army's inventory, and almost all of them became spoils of war in the end.

How to distribute these spoils is a big problem. The various forces in Jingxiang who participated in the battle successively included Zhe Yanzhi, the governor of Jingnan, Cheng Changyu, the governor of Suizhou, Chen Qing, the governor of Yue'e, and Xie Qian, the governor of Yingzhou. , Zhang Ziliang, the governor of Xiagui, Liu Hongdao, the governor of Lizhou, and even Wang Yan, the governor and prefect of Jiangling, who unfortunately died in battle.

It is Chen Qing who contributes the most. This is unquestionable. It is reasonable to say that the most effort should be the most rewarding, but everyone does not think so, because Chen Qing is the one who suffers the least loss among all the forces, and Chen Qing is destroying Yang Yaozhi. The battle took away most of the benefits, but other people also participated in the extermination of Yang Yao, and made a lot of efforts, but they didn't get the slightest benefit in the end.

Everyone was fighting for the spoils according to reason and refused to give in to each other, which made Li Gang feel like a fight.

But it was Chen Qing who caused Li Gang the most headache. Although Chen Qing kept silent and did not fight or grab, Li Gang knew that it would not be that simple to let Chen Qing leave with satisfaction.

Even though his head was big, Li Gang still had to face it. This morning, he invited Chen Qing to the newly restored Huguang Propaganda Envoy's office. Hanyang was only a temporary office, and the real Huguang Propaganda Envoy's office was in Xiangyang. It used to be Wan Yanchang's temporary residence.

Chen Qing walked into Li Gang's spacious official room, Li Gang got up with a smile and said, "Chen Dutong is here, please sit down!"

Chen Qing nodded and sat down, Li Gang asked the tea boy to serve tea again, Li Gang smiled and said, "When are you going to return to Baling?"

"Xiaozhi intends to go back tomorrow. I received a document from the Ministry of Rites to return to Lin'an to be honored. I have to go back and prepare."

"When the time comes, we will go together, and I will also return to Lin'an to report on my work."

"Then I'll wait for news from the envoy!"

Li Gang smiled, and then got to the point, "Since Dutong is going back to Baling tomorrow, it is best to confirm the distribution of the loot today. I have a distribution plan here, and Dutong will see if it is reasonable?"

Li Gang took a distribution plan and handed it to Chen Qing. Chen Qing took it and looked at it, but smiled without saying a word.

Li Gang also knew that Chen Qing would definitely be dissatisfied, but it was also difficult for him!Those few were directly under the jurisdiction of the Xuanfu envoy, but Chen Qing was quite special. He was only under the jurisdiction of the Xuanfu envoy in name, but in fact, the Xuanfu envoy could neither move his army nor mobilize his troops. The generals under him, let alone the chief general Chen Qing.

So he had to send Chen Qing away first, so that the other governors could sit down and discuss with each other behind closed doors.

"I know that Chen Dutong deserves the most credit. I will report the truth to the court. I have also sent a detailed battle report to the officials. It will not be true at all."

Chen Qing asked indifferently: "Earlier, Cheng Zhenfu envoy said that I let Dong Xian go on purpose. I don't know how the Xuanfu envoy reported it to the court?"

In order to suppress Chen Qing's credit, Cheng Changyu accused Chen Qing of letting go of Dong Xian's [-] troops in the end, and even Xie Qian also said this, which made Chen Qing quite annoyed.

Li Gang said with a smile: "Of course I am telling the truth. General Chen's soldiers are exhausted after a night of fierce fighting. Facing the enemy's [-] elite army, they are not sure of victory. It is very rare to be able to capture the enemy's luggage in the end."

Chen Qing put down the plan and said: "Actually, my distribution of spoils is not what they think. I think I have outstanding military achievements and ask for big heads. I don't have this idea. I just want fairness. I will also have an explanation to the soldiers when I go back."

"Then, does Chen Dutong agree with this plan? This is a relatively fair plan at present."

"I agree with this plan, but I have some special requirements, I hope the envoy can agree!"

"Tell me! What do you want?"

Li Gang was prepared in his heart. With Chen Qing's great contribution, how could he not have any special requirements, and he would consider it as appropriate. The key is that Chen Qing's requirements should not be excessive.

Chen Qing said with a smile: "I don't think anyone will ask for [-] dans of hay fodder, so it's no problem to give them all to me!"

"Okay, I'll approve it now!"

"I don't need the share of food, cloth, weapons, and tents, but I want all the oil and gunpowder. Can this condition be agreed?"

Li Gang sighed in his heart, this is a big problem!

In the past, everyone didn't pay much attention to kerosene, but now everyone has seen the power of kerosene with their own eyes, so everyone is vying for it. Chen Qing was the fastest and snatched all the kerosene and gunpowder in Xiangyang Cangcheng. It was found that there were still thousands of barrels of kerosene in the temporary warehouse under the city wall, and it was really impossible to explain to everyone.

But now Chen Qing is not greedy enough, and he wants to make a plan for the thousands of barrels of kerosene in his hand, how could he agree?

Li Gang smiled wryly, "Keow oil is the most sought-after now. Xie Dutong proposed that he didn't want anything, but three thousand barrels of kerosene. Zhang Zhenfu envoy also asked for [-] barrels of kerosene. Fuel comes first."

"Is there no fire oil in Hanyang Cangcheng?"

When mentioning Hanyang Cangcheng, Li Gang’s face suddenly became a little ugly, “There were thousands of barrels of kerosene in Hanyang Cangcheng, but your family Zheng Ping moved them all away. At first, everyone didn’t care, but now everyone wants it.” Two days ago, I asked Zheng Ping about the thousands of barrels of kerosene, and he said that the water battle was all exhausted, Chen Dutong, is that true?"

Chen Qing laughed, "Water battles really consume fuel. Fatty Zheng has always been honest. He said that if he used up all the fuel, then there must be no more fuel."

"He's so honest!" Li Gang, who has always been gentle and refined, couldn't help but swear.

Li Gang said to Chen Qing: "I know why you are chasing after Dong Xian. You are not going to kill the enemy, but to take back the [-] bags of kerosene and [-] barrels of gunpowder that he took away. You have achieved your goal, so you let him go. , I don't care about it, and I will cover it up for you at the court.

But you can't go too far, you have snatched the kerosene and gunpowder of Hanyang Cangcheng and Xiangyang Cangcheng, I only learned from Cangcao Canjun.