Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1355: Boats and Cavalry Arrive Together
Soon a young man in his early twenties was led into the tent. The young man did not look outstanding, and he was exhausted from the long journey, which made him look even more inconspicuous. Especially compared with Han Zigao who led him into the tent, he was like rubble compared to pearls.

The young man's name was Liu Zhenchen, the son of Liu Yi, the governor of Dongyang. Dongyang County was located in the western Zhejiang region at the upper reaches of the Qiantang River. During the Hou Jing Rebellion, Liu Yi, a local tyrant, took advantage of the situation and established his own regime.

When the Chen Dynasty was established, Chen Baxian married Chen Qian's daughter to Liu Yi's son in order to win over Liu Yi. Chen Qian himself was slightly dissatisfied with this. He did not think highly of either Liu Yi's family background or Liu Zhenchen himself.

However, after Chen Baxian passed away, Chen Qian chose to fulfill the marriage contract in order to hold power in the country. When he was expelled from the court, this marriage became even more important to him. With this external support, he could strengthen his own momentum and make the court hesitate to act against him.

Now that the Tang army was coming south, their relationship had turned into an alliance to resist the invasion of the Tang army. Chen Qian had previously threatened Hou An to leave Kuaiji and recruit soldiers elsewhere, including Dongyang County in western Zhejiang where Liu Yi was entrenched.

"The son-in-law greets his father-in-law!"

After Liu Zhenchen entered the tent, he immediately bowed to Chen Qian, being very respectful.

Although Chen Qian didn't think much of his son-in-law, he still maintained basic courtesy. When he saw him bowing, he waved his hand and said, "No need to be so polite, Liu Lang. Why don't you stay in the village to help your father defend the land? Why are you here?"

"I am here on the orders of my father to ask for help from the Marquis of Kuaiji. The Tang general Tian Hong suddenly led his troops to invade our county from Nanchuan. His army was very fierce and many places in our countryside were swept away. It is difficult for our county to resist with our own soldiers. Therefore, my father sent me here to ask for help, hoping that the Marquis can send the army of Kuaiji to go upstream to provide assistance. I know that my father-in-law is here now, so I came to see him first."

Liu Zhenchen felt a lot of pressure when facing his father-in-law, so when he heard the question, he answered quickly and meticulously.

"The Tang army has actually invaded Dongyang County?"

Chen Qian couldn't help but gasp when he heard this. Just now, when he heard that Liu Zhenchen was visiting, he had already guessed that something might happen in western Zhejiang. Now it seemed that this was indeed the case, and it seemed to be more serious than he had imagined.

Liu Yi has been a local tyrant in Dongyang for many years. He has a deep foundation in the territory and considerable power. Even Wang Sengbian and Chen Baxian have tried to win him over. It is not that they do not want to eradicate him. Now the Tang army has come from afar to fight. If it is only a small group of troops, it will not pose much threat to Liu Yi. Now he has been forced to send his son to Kuaiji for help, which shows that the number of invading Tang troops must be large.

The Tang general Tian Hong had previously led his troops south to Guizhou in Lingbiao to attack the Guizhou governor Chunyu Liang. Now he led a large group of troops to invade Dongyang County in western Zhejiang. It can be seen that Chunyu Liang did not cause too much trouble to the Tang army. After ending the battle in Lingbiao, the Tang army returned to fight in time.

Chen Qian briefly outlined the current situation in Jiangdong in his mind, and he couldn't help but take a breath, feeling a sense of panic that the situation was hopeless.

Dongyang and Kuaiji are located in the upper and lower reaches of the Qiantang River, and are closely interdependent. Once Dongyang could not withstand the offensive pressure of the Tang army, Kuaiji would naturally be unsuccessful. The Qiantang River defense line that Hou Andu had carefully built was useless in front of the Tang army coming from the west, and it was difficult to pose any obstacle at all.

Precisely because the two places are so close in terms of geographical location, Liu Yi had to ask Kuaiji for help after encountering danger. If he was not rescued, Kuaiji would certainly not be in good shape.

But the problem is that with the fall of Qiantang City, the Qiantang River defense line is also in danger. Hou Andu is currently struggling to deal with the enemy from the north, and naturally has no spare energy to deal with the threat from western Zhejiang.

Although he had gathered many foot soldiers in Kuaiji, and they seemed to be quite powerful, a considerable number of them lacked even basic armor and weapons, and could hardly form any effective combat power. They were fine for show, but not very useful in actual combat. And with the fall of Qiantang City, a considerable number of soldiers were abandoned on the north bank of the Qiantang River, and now they were afraid that they could not even show their strength.

Therefore, telling Hou Andu about this situation now would only deepen his worries. In fact, it would be difficult to make any effective response, and it might even shake his determination to resist.

After a moment of silence, Chen Qian looked at Liu Zhenchen and said, "Did you send someone to inform Lord Hou about this while you were on the road?"

Liu Zhenchen shook his head and said, "My father told me before I left that the Marquis is arrogant and conceited. This visit is to ask for something, so I should be humble and polite to please him. That's why I didn't dare to send a servant to deliver the message. I want to meet him in person and ask for his help. It just so happens that my father-in-law is here. If I can introduce him to you, I think I can get more respect."

Hou Andu was previously stationed in East Yangzhou, and he had dealt a heavy blow to the powerful forces nearby. Therefore, Liu Zhenchen was quite in awe of him. He came to see his father-in-law Chen Qian first, not only to respect his elders, but also to hope that Hou Andu would treat him better with Chen Qian's introduction. However, Chen Qian had his own ideas. After listening to Liu Zhenchen's words, he frowned and sighed, "You came at an inopportune time. The Tang army in the north of Qiantang River is attacking fiercely and just captured Qiantang City today. Hou Gong is currently mobilizing troops and preparing to retake the city. He has no spare energy to take care of other parties. Going to visit him now will only increase the number of people and may even annoy Hou Gong. You should stay with me for now. When the situation improves, I will introduce you to Hou Gong and ask him to reinforce Dongyang."

"But, but the situation in the village is critical now. Without strong forces to help, the villagers may not be able to resist the attack of the Tang army..."

When Liu Zhenchen heard this, he immediately said with an anxious look on his face.

In order to calm the enemy, Chen Qian hesitated for a moment and then said, "At present, Kuaiji has no spare energy to use elsewhere. I will send my elite soldiers west to comfort them and boost their morale. Let them hold on to their hometown and wait for reinforcements."

When Liu Zhenchen heard what Chen Qian said that the situation in Kuaiji was just as critical, he was at a loss as to what to do, so he could only nod and agree.

After pacifying Liu Zhenchen, Chen Qian ordered his men to lead him and his entourage to another tent and settle them down. He then summoned his general Qian Daoji and instructed him, "The Tang army from Lingbiao is attacking Dongyang. Liu Yi, a local tyrant, may not be able to resist this strong attack. You should lead your troops to the upper reaches of Qiantang and down the Huai River to observe the situation. If you see that Dongyang is unable to defend, send someone back immediately to report!"

When Qian Daoji led his troops to leave the camp and head west, someone soon informed Hou Andu of the news. Hou Andu did not doubt him after receiving the letter, and thought that Chen Qian saw that the situation was not good and sent people to contact Dongyang prefect Liu Yi. He naturally would not object to this. At present, the Qiantang River defense situation was critical. Once Kuaiji was breached, the situation in neighboring Dongyang and other places would not improve. It was necessary to concentrate on consolidating the river defense so that everyone could hope for a good life.

Therefore, Hou Andu only concentrated on arranging the counterattack, hoping to recapture Qiantang City in one go and restore the previous offensive and defensive situation.

However, he was just wishful thinking. When the Tang army was blocked outside the city, they were helpless with the defense line of the defenders. But now that they have captured Qiantang City, how can they let it fall easily again? Not to mention that Xiao Mohe and a group of surrendered people made various suggestions and warnings to make the city defense more comprehensive.

Therefore, the counterattack organized by Hou Andu was doomed to be futile. The water gate dock in the south of Qiantang City was demolished, and catapults and other equipment were deployed near the ship market harbor closer to the city. Once the enemy ships approached, the catapults would directly throw fire bombs onto the ships.

When the landing boats approached the shore, they were intercepted by water fences densely spread above and below the water surface. Some flying boats rushed too hard and crashed into the water fences with the people on them. In an instant, the boats capsized and the people on board died.

After a night of exhaustion, Qiantang City was still not harmed at all, but the Kuaiji navy participating in the counterattack was exhausted and suffered heavy casualties. There was even a large ship that ran aground due to the inconvenience of sailing at night, and was then captured by the Tang army. Therefore, the battle in the second half of the night was no longer about attacking the city, but about trying to recapture or damage the large ship to prevent the Tang army from using it to launch an attack to the south the next day.

The latter task was completed well. After some trouble, the stranded ship was seriously damaged. Not only were the boat's boat facilities destroyed, but the hull also suffered huge damage. Without emergency repairs, it would be difficult to put it into combat again.

Hou Andu supervised the battle at the dock all night, but only got such a result. He was very unwilling in his heart, but seeing that the soldiers were all exhausted and obviously could not continue fighting, he could only order the warships to return for the time being.

After a night of fierce fighting, the situation did not improve, but it did not deteriorate too much. At least the Tang army on the other side of the river still did not have the ability to cross the river to the south in large numbers, so there was still room for recovery. Therefore, Hou Andu forced himself to be alert and patrolled along the southern defense line, ordering his men to be careful and alert, and then dragged his tired body back to the big tent to rest for a while.

After returning to the tent, Hou Andu had a simple meal and then went to sleep in his clothes. He slept until the evening, when he was awakened by the report of the soldiers outside the tent: "My lord, something bad has happened! A large fleet suddenly turned into the Qiantang River estuary and will soon arrive at the battlefield!"

"what?"

Hou Andu lost all his sleepiness when he heard this. He jumped up from the couch. Then he felt dizzy and black in front of his eyes. He fell back on the couch and said in a trembling voice: "The Tang army's fleet has arrived. The situation is very bad. Hurry up and invite King Linchuan to come here to discuss the big plan!"

"The King of Linchuan and the King of Linchuan came to visit the lord at noon and said that they missed their relatives and wanted to go back to Shanyin to visit them. Seeing that the lord was sleeping, they told him not to bother them and went back to Shanyin."

After hearing this, the soldier quickly bowed his head and replied. The King of Linchuan and their lord were close allies, and they were free to come and go on the front line. Naturally, they had no power to stop them. Moreover, Shanyin, where they were going, was also under their control. When they came to say goodbye, there had been no such changes, so they did not take it seriously.

Hearing his subordinate's answer, Hou Andu's face suddenly changed again, and he shouted angrily: "Wu'er has always been short-sighted and cowardly. Could it be that he will abandon me and run away when he sees that the situation is not good? Quickly send a message to Shanyin, and never allow the King of Linchuan to leave the city without permission!"