Northern Dynasties

In early September, the Chinese and Foreign Affairs Office issued the specific schedule of the expedition to the General Manager of Jingzhou, and Li Tai was about to lead his troops to officially go on the expedition.

This time, the Chinese and Foreign Affairs Office did not issue specific recruitment tasks to Jingzhou. The order only said that you should try your best, which means that while ensuring the stability of the defense zone, of course, the more troops the better.

The situation in the area under the jurisdiction of Jingzhou General Administration is relatively stable. The Shannan area is guarded by the local powerful Li family of Ankang and the Kaifu Linghu Yanbao, Quan Zhongzun, Yu Wenqiu and many other people. Even if the local Qiang barbarians are determined to cause trouble, they will not be able to overturn it. What a storm.

As for the Handong area, because Li Tai thoroughly disgraced Liu Zhongli through public trials, both the people and the local garrison forces were much more obedient to the general administration.Coupled with Li Tai's comfort and preferential treatment to the local powerful people, Handong has now had positive personnel interactions with the Miobei area, and there is no atmosphere of confrontation at all.

If there are any hidden dangers that need attention under the entire General Manager's Office, they come from the outside area bordering Nanliang.

Since the beginning of this year, some new changes have taken place in the local power and order in Nanliang.

First of all, Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling who fled to Jiangxia from the Sanwu area, gradually established a foothold. Not long ago, he also disintegrated a local military conspiracy against him in Yingzhou, Nanliang. It seems that he has regarded Jiangxia as his new home base. In business.

However, Xiao Laoliu's good days are gone for a few more days, because something happened downstream again.Xiao Fan, the king of Poyang, who had voluntarily abandoned the important town of Hefei, was trapped in the Jian River. After moving to Huancheng, he had an enmity with Xiao Daxin, the king of Xunyang who was sitting in Jiangzhou on the other side of the river.

Xiao Daxin is the second son of Xiao Gang, the current puppet emperor of the Jiankang court. He and King Poyang are attacking each other, and neither side has the energy to attack Hou Jing downstream.After all, it was Xiao Daxin who took advantage of the landlords and blocked the trade in Jiangzhou, leaving Xiao Fan's tens of thousands of troops with nothing to eat. Xiao Fan died of grief and anger, and his subordinates were also torn apart.

At this time, Hou Jing had already controlled the Sanwu area and was transferring his troops to the west. Taking advantage of the two towns to attack, he ordered his general Ren Yue and others to attack Jiangzhou.

Xunyang King Xiao Daxin still had two thoughts because his father was now the emperor in Beijing. After the battle was unfavorable, he surrendered all the states, allowing Hou Jing's power to advance to Jiangzhou, and the next target was to invade Jiangxia just now Soon after, Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling.

Even without the advance of Hou Jing's rebellious army, Jiang Xia's life would have been difficult.

Li Tai had communicated with Jiangling about the issue of Xiao Laoliu a few days ago, but it just happened that Xiao Ji, the King of Wuling in Shu, sent his son Xiao Yuanzhao to lead [-] troops eastward out of Shu. In the name of obeying Xiao Yi's control, in fact Wait and see to test.

Xiao Yi first dissuaded the troops from Shu and resettled them in Baidi City, and then took advantage of Ren Yue and other rebels to invade the west. He ordered Wang Sengbian to lead 1 troops to go east along the river, in the name of fighting Ren Yue, but in reality the main purpose was to fight against Ren Yue. Still in order to seize Jiangxia, he also announced that he would move Shaoling King Xiao Lun to Changsha to serve as the governor of Xiangzhou.

It's just that when he sent troops to attack Xiao Yu in Changsha before, he just said, "Uncle, I want to discipline this naughty little boy like you."

Xiao Liang and other vassal kings along the Yangtze River interacted very lively, but in fact the most important personnel change this year and the most profound impact on the situation in Jiangnan was not them. The Lingnan area is about to reach the most turbulent area in Jiangnan!
Of course, this matter is still quite far away from Li Tai. Chen Baxian's group of old Lingnan cousins ​​are far from enough to become the opponents of Jingzhou General Manager's Office in terms of geography and strength.

Although there are currently no hidden war dangers inside or around that are enough to contain the movements of Li Tai's army, Li Tai does not plan to invest too much manpower and material resources in this time's eastward and northward expedition.

He only organized [-] elite infantry and cavalry. As for the generals, he brought Gao Le, Shi Jing, Dou Yi and Guo Xian who were still in charge of Sanya Road. The rest were a group of trusted generals such as Shuofeng and his nephews. , let these young men go north to Heluo to see the world, especially to feel the powerful fighting power of the elite Jinyang soldiers of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and to temper their impatience.

Before leaving, Li Tai arranged the military and political tasks of the General Manager's Office.

Various industrial and agricultural production and commercial activities within the territory must continue to promote development. For example, the strategic Shuzhong trade that Li Qianzhe is responsible for must spare no effort to support it.Cui Qian has been in charge of the palace for a long time, and of course he knows the priorities of various internal affairs. Li Tai is relatively reassured about this.

As for the military aspect, since most of the people in Jingzhou still stay in charge of the town, they can still adapt to changes even if any changes occur. There is nothing that needs special emphasis.

Therefore, Li Tai only ordered Hou Mo Chen Qiong, who succeeded the governor of Fangcheng, to urge the troops not to relax in daily drills, and at the same time not to short-circuit the personnel supplies of Yiyang, Sanguan, Anzhou, Yingzhou and other important border defense towns.

In mid-September, Li Tai personally led [-] cavalry northward into Sanya Road, and met up with Guo Xian's troops in Luyang. After a short rest, he sent Gao Le to lead [-] cavalry to attack eastward with Guo Xian. Xiangcheng. "Excuse me, General, there are not many men and horses dispatched for this expedition. We should rush into Yishui with elite troops and win by surprise. Why do we have to separate here and attack Xiangcheng? Are we going to attack other cities in Henan?"

Hearing that Li Tai had made such an arrangement, the governor of the tent who stood beside him, Shuifeng, couldn't help but ask. Several other young confidants also looked suspicious, obviously having the same doubts.

Li Tai led them along in order to increase their knowledge and experience. After hearing this, he gave some pointers on the map and explained: "Xiangcheng is close to the pass and looks out into the wild. It is an important place to control Henan. In previous years, our army was more self-respecting than Mian. In the north, it is enough to defend Sanya. Even if there is a strong army wandering in Henan, it will not disturb me. Now that we are advancing northward, Xiangcheng will be the key point to guard the advance and retreat. According to this, we can eliminate the disturbance on the side and protect it at the same time. The way of war is to avoid losing ground when advancing or retreating."

This principle is still relatively simple. Li Tai explained it briefly, and all the confidants and young disciples could understand it. But then someone asked: "Since we know that we need to divide our troops to guard the fortress, why don't we use more people before departure? We will divide our troops to defend the fortress." , I’m afraid we won’t have enough combat power when we arrive at the front line!”

This time the question was raised by Li Tai's eldest nephew and cousin Li Yuxiang, who was also looking at his uncle with curiosity.

"Three Crows Road is a way of surprising troops. If there are too many people and horses, the logistics and equipment will be bloated and complicated, and the advance and retreat will be slow. Moreover, there are barbarians widely distributed in this realm. If you are surprised to see a large army entering here, you will definitely gather in the mountains and set up obstacles to defend yourself. One or two barbarians are not enough to worry about, but if the group is frightened, their movements will be restricted. The barbarians are restless and restless, so it is more convenient to send envoys to persuade than to gather a crowd to attack."

Before, Li Tai also had a strong and unscrupulous temperament, so how could he put a mere barbarian in his eyes?However, as he takes charge of the military and political affairs of a country, military plans increasingly need to consider cost-effectiveness.

The migration and reproduction of barbarians in this mountainous wilderness have been going on for hundreds of years. There are countless barbarians scattered in the dense mountains and wilderness. It is impossible to kill them all. Killing too many will only make the hatred deeper.

Therefore, if you can communicate, try to remain harmonious and just get rid of a few of the thorns.Even if all these barbarians are killed at the expense of people and money, who will be sent to live in and develop these vast mountains?In the end, it was just a matter of clearing out the other barbarian tribes.

Gao Le and others returned with their fine cavalry the next day, while Guo Xian led his troops to temporarily garrison Xiangcheng.The reason why the battle was ended so quickly and the city was captured was not that the Jingzhou soldiers were exceptionally brave, but that Xiangcheng itself was almost undefended.

After the Battle of Yingchuan last year, the Eastern Wei Dynasty left Murong Shaozong in Henan to take over the land of Henan.However, after a long war, Henan could not provide enough supplies for Murong Shaozong, so Murong Shaozong led his army south. As a result, he was defeated by Li Tai in Shouyang and drowned to death.

As for the remaining troops, some of them also fled to Huainan and were collected by Li Bomu, the governor of Hezhou. Some were classified as Xingtai Xin Shu of the Southeast Road of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and the rest were scattered throughout Henan.

At present, the Northern Qi Dynasty does not have a strong commander in Henan. There is only Feng Zihui, the governor of Northern Yuzhou, who guards Hulao as a representative of Hebei's powerful forces. As for other states and counties in Henan, most of them appoint local powerful people, so there are no powerful people in the local area.

With Xiangcheng temporarily captured, the scouts sent by Li Tai to investigate Yichuan also led back a group of people, led by Li Renjie, nephew of Li Yisun, the founder of the mansion.

Li Renjie, who was in his early twenties, cried to the ground after seeing Li Tai: "The last general finally waited until the general led his army to the north and returned to Yiluo. The former uncle was ordered to guard Fuliu City, but was attacked by the strong army of the Eastern Bandits. After the siege, he was defeated in the mountains and died of his injuries. Fortunately, with the help of many heroic and righteous people in Yinan, the general and his relatives were saved..."

Before the Eastern Wei army besieged Yingchuan last year, in order to prevent the surrounding Western Wei forces from rescuing Yingchuan, they carried out a focused raid on the Heluo area. At that time, Li Yisun was in charge of Fuliu City and was also included in the raid.

After Li Tai heard this, he felt quite sad in his heart. He had fought alongside Li Yisun in Heluo before and had seen his high reputation among the barbarians in Yiluo, but he didn't want to Farewell before is a farewell forever.

"The Gate of Loyalty is not only protected by the heroic spirits of our ancestors, but the imperial court will never ignore the heroic sentiments in this gate!"

Li Tai hurriedly stepped forward to help Li Renjie up, patted his shoulder and comforted him: "Loyalty and strength will only survive. If you go with the army this time, you can kill thieves happily!"

Although their family was only powerful in Yichuan, they had served the Western Wei Dynasty for many years just like the Shangluoquan family. Li Renjie's grandfather Li Changshou, father Li Yansun and uncle Li Yisun all died in the battle with the Eastern Wei Dynasty. They can indeed be called loyal to the family. .