Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

"How can this be! The foundation of the Chen family was established by the heroes like me who followed the first lord. This young man is enjoying the fruits of his labor. Not only is he not grateful, but he is also colluding with foreign invaders and murdering meritorious officials! How can such evildoers enjoy wealth and honor? Where is justice in the world?"

The issuance of the imperial edict has made the people of Wuzhong frightened and uneasy. As the target of the edict, Hou An was naturally more excited. Whether it was anger or fear, his emotions were several times stronger than those of others. He originally looked down on the king Chen Chang. Now after reading the edict in the state government, he was even more furious and cursed Chen Chang.

But after venting, the problems that should be faced still need to be faced, especially since it was not only the imperial court that was targeting him, but also the Tang Kingdom behind it. It took the whole country's strength to kill one person. Especially after unifying the north, the Tang Dynasty is now an absolute behemoth. When thinking of the terrible power gap between them, even a strong-willed person like Hou Andu felt a burst of despair.

When the proclamation reached Kuaiji, the people in the palace were also in an uproar. Hou Andu even felt that the eyes of the palace officials looking at him had undergone some subtle and obvious changes, so he knew in his heart that if he could not deal with it properly this time, it would be a disaster for him.

Fortunately, there is still King Linchuan who puts the overall situation first and does not easily stay out of the matter due to the enemy's instigation and provocation. He still dares to withstand the pressure from the north and mobilizes all the soldiers in Wuxing to resist the enemy.

This also makes Hou Andu feel relieved and grateful. At least there are still people in the clan who are truly ambitious and can take on important tasks, not all of them are fools like the king Chen Chang.

At the same time, Hou Andu was also deeply resentful and regretful. If the King of Linchuan could inherit the throne, the state affairs would not be like this now. Even if they could not cross the river to fight the enemy, at least they could defend the river defense and would not allow the Northern Dynasty to intimidate and bully them like this!

Putting aside the various complex emotions in his heart, Hou Andu also hurriedly began to take countermeasures. The first is to strengthen the security force of the state government, transfer all the trusted tribes originally stationed outside Shanyin City to the city, arrange them inside and outside the state government, and strictly check the personnel entering and leaving the state government. All the officials are not allowed to carry weapons when they enter the government to report!

He knew that the Tang Kingdom pointed the spearhead directly at him, just to make those short-sighted people think that he is the root of all disasters, so as to lead the resentment in the hearts of the people to him. In this way, it is inevitable that some people will choose to take risks to assassinate themselves because they are afraid of the attack of the Tang army, and solve the so-called root of the disaster before the Tang people.

In addition, Hou Andu himself was not known for his benevolent rule in the town. He was strict and harsh in his rule, and he did accumulate some hatred and resentment from the people. But there was nothing he could do about it. Kuaiji was adjacent to Zhejiang and Fujian. During the Hou Jing Rebellion, some powerful people took advantage of the situation and established their own regimes. The people were very fierce. If Hou Andu was weaker, he would not be able to stand firm in the town.

In the past, there was nothing to worry about these turbulent people, but now with the huge pressure of worry, if Hou Andu was not cautious, he might have suffered the murder of local bandits before the Tang army came.

After improving his own security, Hou Andu began to vigorously recruit soldiers in the town.

Although he had thousands of elite soldiers under his command, they were all his trusted followers, so he could not easily send them out. They had to stay by his side and be led by himself. There were more than 5,000 state soldiers in Kuaiji. If they were only to maintain public order, arrest bandits and suppress scoundrels, these soldiers would naturally be enough. However, the Tang army that crossed the river would come in a moment, and these troops would naturally be far from enough.

So he recruited strong soldiers in the territory, whether they were powerful troops or rural households, and gathered them all together to form a team of more than 30,000 people. At the same time, he sent a letter to Liu Yi, the governor of Dongyang in western Zhejiang, and Chen Baoying, the governor of Jin'an in central Fujian, ordering them to send troops together to fight against the Tang army.

The governors of these two places were local powerful people who rose during the Hou Jing Rebellion. After the establishment of the Chen Dynasty, because the dangers in various places were still serious and they were unable to conquer several parties, they could only appoint officials to win them over and recognize their separatist forces.

Later, after Chen Qian retreated to the Three Wus, he also focused on winning over these two parties. He first married Liu Yi's children to his daughters, and then called Chen Baoying brothers, which was considered to have won them over to his own command.

Dongyangzhou, where Hou Andu was stationed, happened to border the two parties. Before Chen Qian returned to Wuxing, Hou Andu had repeatedly used troops to attack the two parties. Although there was no direct military conflict afterwards, Hou Andu also threatened and extorted the two parties, and cooperated with Chen Qian to control the Zhejiang and Fujian regions.

Now that the Tang army came south, the first to bear the brunt would naturally be the Three Wus, and if the Three Wus were defeated, the next to suffer would be the Zhejiang and Fujian regions.

The two parties also understood the principle of the lips and teeth being cold, and they had always been wary of Hou Andu, fearing that he would retreat to their own territory and wander around and cause damage, so they each sent a thousand soldiers and carried some supplies to Kuaiji for reinforcement, and on the other hand urged their subordinates to build fortresses at the border of the land to prevent the war from spreading.

After the reinforcements and supplies from these two parties arrived in Kuaiji, Hou Andu selected another 3,000 soldiers from the provincial army to form a team of 5,000 people. He ordered his confidants to lead them to Wuxing to defend the territory together with the King of Linchuan to resist the Tang army. He himself led the rest of the troops to arrange defenses along the Qiantang River, preparing to use this river as the last line of defense to intercept the Tang army from the south.

Wuxing and Kuaiji were preparing for war, and the situation in the north was also changing rapidly.

The Tang army from the south, which was the biggest variable affecting the current situation, did not take action immediately. Instead, Wu Mingche's troops, which were still affiliated with the Southern Chen court, and Xu Du's troops, who had rebelled but not completely rebelled, met in Wujun. The two groups had more than 10,000 soldiers and marched towards the city of Wujun.

In Wujun, there were only a few thousand rioters led by Han Zigao and others who entered the city earlier. As for the troops led by Qian Daoji, although they continued to reinforce Wujun, they did not go directly to the city. Instead, they continued to sweep the surrounding counties in the name of suppressing the rebellion, and continuously sent the money and goods resources looted from the villages back to Wuxing.

However, as the real army to pacify the rebellion entered Wu County, Wuxing's looting operations also came to a temporary end. In addition, Chen Qian sent another team to the north to assist the Wu County Division in defending and resisting the enemy. The two teams, with a total of more than 7,000 people, advanced towards Wu County. But they did not go directly to the city, but stopped on the south bank of Songjiang River on the south bank of Wu County, forming a certain echo with the garrison in the city.

Songjiang is more than 20 miles away from Wu County. Although the Wuzhong army is not equipped with a complete system of chariots and horses, and the mobility is not too high, the distance itself is not too far. In addition, the city defense of Wu County is relatively complete. As long as the city can hold on for a period of time, the riverside army can still arrive at the battlefield in time for rescue. If the offensive and defensive battles are not smooth, Songjiang can still be defended to avoid being driven straight in by the enemy.

However, the battle of Wujun County City did not last too long, and there was no chance for the reinforcements from the south bank of Songjiang River to reinforce. The city was quickly captured, even faster than the speed of the rioters taking the city before.

The troops that came to the south to quell the rebellion were all elite troops from Jiankang and Jingkou Beizhen, and the main generals Wu Mingche and Xu Du were also famous generals who were feared by Jiangzuo. But what really frightened the soldiers and civilians in the city and made them flee without any resistance was the two Heyang cannons brought by Xu Du's division.

Although the Heyang cannon had only been used on battlefields in Heluo and Shannan, and had not been used on actual battlefields in Jiangdong, its reputation had been spread for a long time.

As early as when Jiangling City was broken, various versions of rumors about the powerful Heyang Cannon were rife. Although most people did not know whether the Wei army used the Heyang Cannon when attacking Jiangling, the Jiangling regime had just put down the Hou Jing rebellion that ravaged Jiangdong, and its reputation was at its peak. As a result, the city was broken so quickly at this extremely glorious moment. Such a huge gap always requires some unconventional explanations to be accepted by people, so various rumors about the Heyang Cannon became an important topic.

So when the Heyang Cannon, which was so terrifying that even the huge Jiangling City could not withstand it, was erected outside the county city, the people in the city were all panicked, and when the thunderous cannonballs bombarded the city, the defenders in the city could no longer hold on and fled, so that the government army recovered the county city of Wujun almost without bloodshed.

Next, Xu Du stayed in the city, while Wu Mingche continued to lead the mobile armed forces to pursue the defeated troops to the south. He killed many prisoners along the way and chased them all the way to the bank of Songjiang River. The few remaining defeated troops were able to cross the river and flee south with the support of the division and brigade in the south.

However, unlike the rebel army that had occupied Wu County before, the troops stationed on the south bank of Songjiang River were the Zhenzhou state army with a clear banner. Now they were stationed on the south bank to prevent the government troops from suppressing the rebellion, which was naturally no different from treason.

Because the number of troops on the opposite side was not small, and they were clearly subordinate to the troops of King Linchuan, Wu Mingche also stationed his troops on the north bank and confronted the opponent across the Songjiang River. At the same time, he reported the relevant information to the court and waited for further instructions from the court.

"This evil disciple of the clan really dared to raise an army to resist the royal army. Does he still have the royal law in his eyes? And where does he put the court!"

In Jiankang City, the drastic changes in recent days have exhausted Chen Chang. Now that he heard that the Wuxing army had made it clear that they were going to be enemies with the government army, and thought about how he had covered up for Chen Qian before for the sake of the overall situation, he became even more angry.

Simply scolding was not enough to vent Chen Chang's anger. In anger, he even directly ordered that Chen Xu and his son, who were held hostage in Taicheng, be executed!