Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1333: Sending a Proclamation to the Three Wu

"How can this be! The foundation of the Chen family was established by our heroes following the First Lord, but this bastard is enjoying the fruits of his labor. Not only is he not grateful, he is colluding with foreign invaders and plotting to murder his meritorious officials! How can such a wicked person enjoy wealth and honor? Where is justice in the world?"

The issuance of the imperial edict had already made the people of Wuzhong frightened and uneasy. As the target of the edict, Hou Andu was naturally even more excited. His emotions of fear, anger and worry were several times stronger than those of other people. He had always looked down on King Chen Chang, and now after reading the contents of the edict in the provincial government, he was even more furious and started cursing at Chen Chang.

But after venting, he still had to face the problems he had to face, especially since it was not just the imperial court that was targeting him, but also the Tang Kingdom behind it. The whole country had to use its strength to kill one person, especially after unifying the north. The Tang Kingdom was now an absolute behemoth. When he thought of the terrible power gap between them, even a strong-willed person like Hou Andu felt a sense of despair.

When this manifesto reached Kuaiji, the people in the palace were in an uproar. Hou Andu even felt that there were some subtle yet obvious changes in the looks of the palace officials when they looked at him, 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, King Linchuan still puts the overall situation first and does not stay out of the matter easily due to the enemy's instigation. He still dares to withstand the pressure from the north and mobilizes all the soldiers in Wuxing to resist the enemy.

This also made Hou Andu feel relieved and grateful. At least there were still people in the clan who were truly ambitious and capable of taking on important responsibilities, and not all of them were fools like King Chen Chang.

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

Putting aside the complicated emotions in his heart, Hou Andu also quickly began to take countermeasures. The first thing was to strengthen the security of the prefecture, transfer all the trusted troops originally stationed outside Shanyin City to the city, deploy them inside and outside the prefecture, and strictly check the people entering and leaving the prefecture. All the prefectural officials were not allowed to carry weapons when they entered the prefecture to report on matters!

He knew that the Tang Dynasty pointed the finger at him directly in order to make those short-sighted people think that he was the source of all the troubles, thus directing the public's resentment towards him. In this way, it was inevitable that some people would choose to take the risk of assassinating him because they were afraid of the Tang army's attack, so as to solve the so-called source of trouble before the Tang people did.

In addition, Hou Andu himself was not known for his benevolent rule in the town. He was strict and harsh in governing his subordinates and enforcing the law, which indeed accumulated some hatred and resentment from the people. But there was nothing that could be done 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 tough. 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 unrests, but now, with the huge pressure of worry looming, if Hou Andu is not cautious, he may fall into the hands of local bandits before the Tang army arrives.

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

Although he had several thousand 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 him personally. There were more than 5,000 state soldiers in Kuaiji. If they were just to maintain public order, arrest bandits and suppress scoundrels, these soldiers would naturally be enough. However, the Tang army that crossed the river would attack in a moment, so these troops would naturally be far from enough.

So he recruited strong soldiers from all over the country, from powerful families to rural households, and formed 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 to fight against the Tang army.

The governors of these two places were local tyrants who rose to power during the Hou Jing Rebellion. After the establishment of the Chen Dynasty, the dangers in various places were still serious and they were unable to conquer the various parties, so 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 his children to Liu Yi's and then treated Chen Baoying as a brother, in order to win them over to his side.

East Yangzhou, where Hou Andu was stationed, happened to border the two parties. Before Chen Qian returned to Wuxing, Hou Andu had repeatedly sent troops to attack the two parties. Although there were no direct military conflicts afterwards, Hou Andu still threatened and extorted both of them, and cooperated with Chen Qian to control the Zhejiang and Fujian regions.

Now that the Tang army is coming south, the first to bear the brunt will naturally be the Three Wu areas. If the Three Wu areas are defeated, the next areas to suffer will be the Zhejiang and Fujian regions.

The two parties understood the principle of "the lips and the teeth are cold", and they had always been wary of Hou Andu, fearing that he would retreat to their own territory and cause destruction. So they each sent a thousand soldiers and some supplies to Kuaiji for reinforcement. On the other hand, they urged their subordinates to build fortresses on the border to prevent the war from spreading.

After the reinforcements arrived at Kuaiji, Hou Andu selected 3,000 soldiers from the provincial army to form a 5,000-man team. He ordered his trusted men to lead them to Wuxing to defend the territory with the King of Linchuan to resist the Tang army. He personally 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 coming 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 under the jurisdiction of the Southern Chen court, and Xu Du's troops, which had rebelled but not completely, joined forces in Wujun. The two groups of troops, with more than ten thousand soldiers, marched towards the city of Wujun in a mighty manner.

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

However, as the real anti-rebellion army entered Wu County, Wuxing's looting operations also came to a temporary halt. In addition, Chen Qian sent another team to the north to assist the Wu County brigade in defending and resisting the enemy. The two teams, with a total of more than 7,000 people, advanced towards Wu County. However, they did not go directly to the city, but stopped at 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 Wujun County. Although the Wuzhong army is not equipped with a complete system of chariots and horses, and its mobility is not very high, the distance itself is not too far. In addition, the defense of Wujun County is relatively complete. As long as the city can hold out 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 going well, they can still hold Songjiang to avoid being directly attacked by the enemy.

However, the attack and defense of Wujun County City did not last too long, and there was not even a chance for the reinforcements from the south bank of Songjiang River to come in. The city was quickly captured, even faster than the speed at which the rioters had captured the city before.

The troops that came to the south to quell the rebellion were all elite troops from Jiankang and Jingkou North Town, and their commanders Wu Mingche and Xu Du were both famous generals who were feared by the Jiangzuo area. However, what really frightened the soldiers and civilians in the city and caused them to flee without any resistance was the two Heyang cannons brought by Xu Du's division.

Although the Heyang Cannon has only been used on battlefields in Heluo and Shannan, and there has been no example of it being used on an actual battlefield in Jiangdong, its reputation has been spread for a long time.

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

So when the terrifying Heyang Cannon, which even the huge Jiangling City could not withstand, was erected outside the county city, the people in the city were all panicked. And when the thunderous cannonballs blasted into the city, the defenders in the city could no longer hold on and fled one after another, so that the government army recaptured the county city of Wujun with almost no bloodshed.

Next, Xu Du stayed in the city, while Wu Mingche continued to lead the mobile armed forces to pursue the defeated troops southward, killing and capturing many people along the way, and chasing them all the way to the banks of the Songjiang River. The few remaining defeated troops were able to hurriedly cross the river and flee south with the support of the division and brigade in the south.

However, unlike the rebel army that had previously occupied Wu County, the troops stationed on the south bank of Songjiang River were the Zhenzhou provincial army with a clear banner. Now they were stationed on the south bank to prevent the government army from suppressing the rebellion, which was naturally tantamount to treason.

Because the opposing army was large in number and was clearly under the command of Prince Linchuan, Wu Mingche also stationed his troops on the north bank, confronting the enemy across the Songjiang River. At the same time, he reported the relevant information to the court and waited for further instructions.

"This evil disciple of the clan really dared to raise an army to resist the royal army. Does he still respect the royal law? And where does he put the imperial court?"

In Jiankang City, Chen Chang had been exhausted by the dramatic changes in recent days. Now, hearing that the Wuxing army had made it clear that they were ready to become enemies of the government army, and thinking about how he had previously covered up for Chen Qian for the sake of the overall situation, he became even angrier.

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