Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

"We want to see the King of Linchuan! If the King refuses to meet, I would rather shed blood in front of the mansion than leave!"

Outside the Linchuan Prince's Mansion in Changcheng County, nearly a thousand Wuzhong villagers gathered in front of the mansion. A dozen or so people led by them shouted loudly into the mansion. They showed no fear on their faces when facing the heavily armed guards with knives and armor in front of the mansion. .

In the inner hall of the palace, Chen Qian looked at Shen Ke who hurried into the hall with an irritated look and asked: "Have you found out who is the culprit who committed the murder?"

After preparing for the war for more than a month, the Tang army did not wait. On the contrary, because most of the Xiangyi tribes were concentrated near the Linchuan Palace, bandits were rampant throughout Wuxing County and caused trouble everywhere. There are real strong bandits among them, as well as powerful tribes taking advantage of the situation. In short, except for the area near Linchuan Palace, the order in the rest of the area is very chaotic.

At this time, the shouting villagers gathered outside the mansion were from Beijing Township, Changcheng County. Their village had been looted by strong beams recently, and all their belongings were looted. People in the family members' village also suffered heavy casualties. Therefore, these people gathered in front of the mansion, hoping that King Linchuan would investigate and punish the murderer severely.

Chen Qian has been troubled by various unexpected changes in the past few days. When she heard that such a heinous murder had occurred in the county, she was very angry and immediately ordered her subordinates to investigate thoroughly.

"I've checked it out. It was Lu Zilong's brigade that did it."

Shen Ke's face was also not very good-looking, and he lowered his head and said in a low voice: "When his troops withdrew from Wu County, they fought hard because they were ordered to stay behind, but all the supplies they brought were left behind. After they withdrew from Wuxing, they saw that the villagers were well-off, so they , so he connived at the crime."

"This thief, this thief! Doesn't he know that this is the critical moment to prepare for war and respond to the enemy? How dare he kill and plunder in our hometown!"

After Chen Qian heard Shen Ke's report, she became even more furious and cursed loudly.

Lu Zilong was born in the Lu family of Wu County and was also one of Chen Qian's generals. Therefore, when he planned to attack Wu County before, he was asked to lead a group of soldiers there. In recent days, people's morale has been slack. Chen Qian originally wanted to deal with this murder case in the village to severely crack down on the strong bandits who took advantage of the situation, but she didn't want to find out after a thorough investigation that she had been found.

Although she was filled with hatred in her heart, Chen Qian remembered that Lu Zilong was loyal, brave and strategic, otherwise he would not have been assigned to take charge of the rear. When he fought with the Tang army in the future, he would definitely be a capable general, and she couldn't bear to believe it. impose severe penalties and standard punishments.

After thinking for a while, Chen Qian then said: "I'm going to order Lu Zilong to hand over the ten murderers who committed the murder and kill them together with the thieves captured elsewhere. They will be reported to the various camps and give an explanation to the victimized countrymen! Together with them, lead the troops. Go to Qiantang to garrison, and don’t stay in the Great Wall anymore!”

In order to calm down the emotions of the victimized villagers, Chen Qian no longer lived in the palace. He left the palace wearing a military uniform and went to the school grounds in person to oversee the execution. The villagers from various camps also came to the surroundings of the school grounds to watch the execution. When the heads of the murderers were chopped off one by one, the bloody scene immediately stimulated the surrounding onlookers to shout and shout.

Taking advantage of the excitement here, Chen Qian walked up to the high platform with her head held high and shouted loudly: "Today, a powerful enemy is coming in a moment, and the family and country are in danger. All the soldiers gathered at the house, hoping to defeat the enemy with all their strength and defend their home and country! If Gu is afraid of surrendering to the Tang Dynasty, he will unify Jiangdong and show his generosity, so he should not lose his status as a feudal prince. However, the people from all over the country are loyal to Gu, so how can Gu bear to live alone and abandon the rest of the people?

Today, there are powerful people who are taking advantage of the chaos to cause trouble and act as helpers for the tigers, causing great persecution to the people of our hometown, even destroying their families and killing people. The Tang army has not yet arrived, but the disaster is already like this. If the enemy enters the hometown, the disaster will inevitably be more serious! Today, there are still people from all over the country who are united in a city to fight against a powerful enemy. If the people are scattered in the wild and everyone stays in their homes, how can they be the enemy? It's just waiting to be killed!

In the past, all the countrymen were discussing how to meet the enemy. None of the countrymen had any good plans, and they all looked to Gu. At that time, he told the people in the countryside that only by enforcing orders and prohibitions could he defeat the powerful enemy. Now the enemy is seducing me without making any move, hoping to make me feel weak in morale. He is spreading rumors and slandering me repeatedly, all because he is afraid of my large number of people and strong will! Whatever the enemy wants, I will do the opposite, and then I will have a good chance of winning! Today, the punishment knife is placed here. There is no distinction between internal and external thieves. Anyone who harms our country will be killed with a knife and abandoned by everyone! "

Chen Qian's shouting immediately made the public sentiment around the school grounds more and more excited. The villagers raised their hands and shouted in response, which also revived the morale that had become obviously low recently.

However, after the execution was over, the ordinary villagers and spectators returned to camp happily, but the villagers who had really suffered the disaster refused to give up easily, so they went forward to carefully identify the murderers to see if there were any fish that had slipped through the net.

It didn't matter at this glance, it was soon discovered that the real leader of the murderers was not among the tortured people at all. After all, although Lu Zilong's troops killed a lot of people in the village, they could not kill everyone. There were still people who were lucky enough to escape and remembered the appearance of these evil thieves deeply. Now they find that there are still thieves at large. These Of course people can't bear it.

They didn't feel that King Linchuan was deliberately shielding him. After all, what King Linchuan said just now was so righteous and generous. Even they were deeply moved and even burst into tears. Now that they found that there were still people at large, they all wanted to report to the King of Linchuan as soon as possible so that they could continue to kill these thieves and not let them continue to wander around the countryside and cause harm to the world.

Chen Qian had just returned to the mansion and was waiting to deal with other matters. However, she was told by the palace officials that the village disciples had gathered back. She was naturally irritated, knowing that these village disciples would continue to pester them endlessly. , even if you order the guards in the mansion to drive people away, if you still refuse to leave, you will be directly arrested and punished as a slave.

In his opinion, these people were still entangled and noisy, and they were out of the scope of pursuing the murderers. Instead, they were questioning and provoking his majesty. After all, he had just given an explanation to these people in public. Since they are still recalcitrant, they must be severely punished!

The villagers who gathered outside the palace had some illusions in their hearts, thinking that King Linchuan would listen carefully to their complaints and appeals. However, they suddenly saw a large group of armored soldiers pouring out of the palace and chasing them around. They were even tied up with ropes and detained. This immediately shattered their illusions. Many people realized that King Linchuan might be deliberately protecting the murderers. For a while, they felt extremely sad and angry, and cursed repeatedly.

However, the villagers in the camp had just been inspired by King Linchuan and were still cheering each other on in the camp. Few people paid attention to these villagers who were unable to take revenge and were instead beaten and punished. Even if someone notices it, they only feel a little pity in their hearts, but dare not directly express their support for fear of causing trouble for themselves.

Many things in this world often have context buried under the calm surface before specific changes occur.

In order to protect the country and resist the invasion of the Tang army, Chen Qian worked hard and exerted a lot of effort. However, many things will not necessarily be rewarded for her efforts, especially when she is going against the general trend and the means When the approach may not be accurate, no matter how good the intention is, it will often only lead to bitter consequences in the end.

For example, right now, although the Tang army has not actually launched an attack on Wuzhong, the rural soldiers in Wuzhong have already suffered various hardships and tests.

Chen Qian wanted to rely on the land of Sanwu to resist the Tang army, but she was not blindly arrogant or wishful thinking.

Jiangdong Shiliu generally held a resistant and hostile attitude towards the northern invasion of the south. Coupled with Chen Qian's momentum building in Wuzhong, as the Tang army entered Jingkou, the threat increased sharply, and many Xiangqu tribes gathered in Changcheng Township. Wu, even reaching more than 50,000 at one time.

In addition, although Wuzhong does not have any strategic terrain such as high mountains and dangerous ravines, it has a dense and complex water network, which also has certain restrictions on the bow and horse riding tactics that the Northerners are accustomed to using. The Wuzhong Xiangqu people could rely on this geographical element and their familiarity with the countryside to fortify themselves layer by layer, fight step by step, and use small-scale battles to wear down the Tang army's vigor, thus successfully defending their homeland.

However, the Tang army did not use force directly after that. Instead, they chose other methods to gradually disintegrate hostility and resistance. The most obvious manifestation of this is that the number of rural warriors gathered around the Linchuan Palace is declining sharply as time goes by. Although Chen Qian used various means to intimidate and induce, the trend of soldiers and people fleeing was still irreversible.

On the day of the Spring Festival, Chen Qian also ordered the government officials to raise supplies to reward the villagers, and he himself led a group of confidants to personally visit the camps to express condolences to the soldiers.

The soldiers responded enthusiastically and lined up in the camp to welcome King Linchuan and his party. But this lively scene could not conceal the overall desolation. Many camps were missing soldiers, and some camps were even empty.

So after a tour of the camp and returning to the palace, Chen Qian's face was not happy, but he still cheered up and had a banquet with the palace officials to celebrate the New Year.

But when she finished the banquet and returned to bed, Chen Qian looked at Han Zigao, who had withdrawn from Wu County to prepare his sleeping tent, and sighed suddenly, and said in a bitter voice: "People often say that Li Boshan of the Tang Dynasty had profound strategies and used soldiers like a god, so he had no chance of fighting. I don't think I can win, but if I dare to fight against the enemy and my soldiers sacrifice their lives generously, how powerful the enemy can be but I can't defeat it. But now when we actually fight, the enemy can only attract but not attack, but I am already about to be defeated and unable to fight!"

When Han Zigao heard Chen Qian's slightly decadent words, he turned around and knelt in front of Chen Qian's knees, bowed his head and whispered: "Your Majesty, there is no need to be discouraged. Although Li Boshan is a hero of the North, he cannot take advantage of his current powerful power." It’s just a powerful force. But if the king can dominate the country at the same time and control the people in the east of the Yangtze River, he will also be able to fight against the north and the south of the river!"

"What the world is fighting for is nothing more than the current situation. Zi Gao's remarks are truly scoundrel remarks."

Chen Qian raised her hand and stroked the top of Han Zi's high hair, and said: "If the Tang army attacks in the future, it will surely become a thunderous force. It may not be possible for our scattered Wuzhong division brigade to resist. You first escort the princess and the prince to Qiantang. If you really don’t stay here, I’ll meet you again.”

After hearing this, Han Zigao lowered his head and cried: "There is no war on the road ahead, anyone can take up the post of escort. Please serve the king and share life and death!"

After Chen Qian heard this, she couldn't help but look moved. His treatment of his subordinates was largely influenced by his uncle Chen Baxian, and many people who were his enemies were turned into his confidants, which also made him often boast that he was very good at serving his subordinates.

However, Hua Jiao's betrayal made him shocked, angry and disappointed, and even had some self-doubt for a time. But now that he heard Han Zigao's sincere expression, he felt greatly relieved, and his originally depressed mood improved slightly.

Not to mention that Chen Qian was depressed and had begun to consider retreating. As the New Year passed, the Tang Army also began to formally prepare to attack Sanwu.

Although the military strength of Southern Chen was far weaker than that of Northern Qi, the significance of conquest was far greater than that of Northern Qi. Although Li Tai did not personally lead the army to the expedition this time, he was very concerned about this matter.

Because Chang'an was farther away from the front line of Jiangdong, it was inconvenient to transmit information, so after the New Year in Chang'an, he led a group of court officials to Luoyang, presiding over the implementation of government orders in Hebei, Henan and other places, while taking into account the development of the war in Jiangdong.

Because it was known that Jiangdong would warm up earlier than the north, and the soldiers had stayed across the river for half a winter, they must have adapted to the wet and cold climate in early spring in Jiangdong. Therefore, in the formal tactical formulation, Li Tai gave the front-line soldiers a deadline to basically end the battle in the Three Wu area before the official arrival of spring plowing, and try not to delay the arrangement of agricultural production in Wuzhong in the next year.

In total, the battle in the Three Wu area had to be completed within a month after the Spring Festival, which was also a relatively challenging task for the Tang army. The key is that in addition to Wujun and Wuxing, the Kuaiji area across Zhejiang is larger and the situation is more complicated. Therefore, when the relevant plan was passed to Jiangdong, the generals of the army also cheered up and did not dare to neglect it.

The main general of this expedition to the Three Wus was Shi Ning, and Quan Jingxuan and Ruo Ruofeng were also deputy generals. After the court's conscription order was officially issued, Shi Ning ordered Ruo Ruofeng to lead 10,000 infantry and cavalry from Jingkou to Wujun in the south, preparing to break through the Songjiang defense line of Wuxing. Quan Jingxuan continued to push the boat division downstream and fully took over the defense of the Yangtze River below Dongguan and east of Hengjiang.

In this way, the entire Jiangdong area will be open to Jiangbei. If the Jiangdong side in the rear has any repeated actions while the battle on the front line is fierce, the Jiangbei side can immediately deploy troops to extinguish them.

As for Shi Ning himself, he led his troops to push eastward from Xuancheng and directly attack the Wuxing area south of Taihu Lake. As troops from all directions set out together, the long-planned war against the Three Wus officially began.