Qian Song

Chapter 101 Please march and win the battle (please subscribe, ask for a monthly pass!)

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Everyone has already set foot on the land of Jiangbei, and Ma Kuo and other envoys to the Huben army still can't believe it. They came back without any surprises and dangers after reporting their death ambitions? !

The key point is that Ma Kuo and other envoys to the Huben Army also completed the task assigned to them by Tong Guan, and successfully connected with Neijian Yuwen Huang Zhong who had penetrated into the Huben Army.

Since Yuwen Huangzhong became the accompanying envoy to receive Ma Kuo and the others, Ma Kuo and Yuwen Huangzhong had many opportunities to get in touch.

This allowed Yuwen Huangzhong to tell Ma Kuo all the words he had held back for more than five months, and Ma Kuo must bring all these words to Tong Guan.

As for what Yuwen Huangzhong asked him to convey to Tong Guan, Ma Kuo brought everything verbatim.

For example:

Yuwen Huangzhong's unequivocal judgment, Fang La is not to be feared, and it is absolutely impossible to become a confidant of the imperial court, but Li Cun is different. In Yuwen Huangzhong's original words: "Gai Li Cun is a man who is capable of both literature and martial arts." , The nature of sages, heroes, and thieves are all combined, and they are capable ministers who govern the world and heroes of chaos. They must be forced to surrender to the court with the power of the whole country, otherwise they will be eliminated early, or they will become a serious problem for the court.”

After hearing Yuwen Huangzhong's evaluation of Li Cun conveyed by Ma Kuo, Tong Guan took it seriously.

Judging from the performance of Li Cun and Fang La during the period of leading the rebellion, Li Cun is obviously more comprehensive, more capable, and more troublesome. On the other hand, Fang La seems petty everywhere, with more wisdom and decision-making ability than Li Cun Much worse.

in fact--

From Tong Guan's point of view, if Li Cun and Fang La can work together, it's really hard to say whether he can win the final victory against the bandits.

Then, Ma Kuo conveyed the summary of Yuwen Huangzhong, the detailed strength of the Huben Army, the deployment of troops, the training of soldiers, the morale of the soldiers, the situation of combat readiness, the situation of food and grass, the political situation, economic situation, Fangla, etc. The distribution of other ant thieves in the Liangzhe area, etc., etc...

It can be said that Yuwen Huangzhong made a detailed report to Tong Guan on everything that could be reported.

Just looking at the data of how much hard work he has put in, Tong Guan believes that Yuwen Huangzhong must be loyal to the court and has not betrayed.

——Ma Kuo, who had in-depth exchanges with Yuwen Huangzhong, also gave Yuwen Huangzhong a guarantee, believing that Yuwen Huangzhong is a generous and righteous man, and he can be trusted.

After Tong Guan listened to Yuwen Huangzhong's report relayed by Ma Kuo, he was no less shocked than when Yuwen Huangzhong saw on the city wall that there were more than 12 orders to prohibit, even if the entire army went late at night, no one stood up and said The moment when the Huben army complained half a sentence.

"In just half a year, Li Cun has grown so much?!"

Tong Guan finally understood why Yuwen Huangzhong gave Li Cun such a high evaluation, and finally understood why Yuwen Huangzhong advocated using the power of the whole country to force Li Cun to surrender or kill Li Cun as soon as possible.

——In Tong Guan's view, if what Yuwen Huangzhong reported was all true, then Yuwen Huangzhong's claims were somewhat conservative, and Zhao Song should force Li Cun to surrender or kill Li Cun by all means and recklessly.

What Ma Kuo brought back was not all bad news, but there was also good news.

And the good news is that many people in the Huben army are willing to accept the imperial court's recruitment, and even secretly help the imperial court to facilitate the recruitment of Li Cun.

This somewhat made Tong Guan heave a sigh of relief.

It's a pity that most of those who want to be recruited by the imperial court are literati.

To Tong Guan's great annoyance, Li Cun did not allow literati to intervene in the affairs of the army, nor did he allow military personnel to intervene in politics.

And Li Cun is very assertive, he listens to what others say that he thinks is useful, and ignores what others say if he thinks it is useless, even what Li Cun's father-in-law said is no exception.

As a result, those who wanted to be recruited by the imperial court could only support Tong Guan, which was of no practical use at all.

Afterwards, Tong Guan called over the two students who cut their shares and collected books.

Ma Kuo knew that this was a serious matter, so he took the initiative to say that before seeing Yuwen Huangzhong, no one had touched the wound on the leg of the living man who was carrying the calligraphy. The person who carried the calligraphy took away the wax pills that sealed the calligraphy. Therefore, apart from Yuwen Huangzhong, there must be no second person who has seen the calligraphy, including Ma Kuo.

The so-called word verification, in simple terms, is the password used by the spies of later generations - use this password to find the agreed book, and you can get the information to be delivered.

And the wax pill secret letter in Shengjian's leg carrying Yuwen Huangzhong's wax pill secret letter was put in by Yuwen Huangzhong himself, and no one else has touched it.

Tong Guan first ordered the medical officer to check the wounds on the legs of the two students. After the medical officer confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the wounds on the legs of the two students, Tong Guan personally took out the wounds on the legs of the two students. The wax pill secret letter in Yuwenhuang.

Tong Guan took out the book he had agreed with Yuwen Huangzhong, extracted the information Yuwen Huangzhong wanted to send according to the code passed by Yuwen Huangzhong, and read it together:
"On the thirteenth day of the fifth month, Li Cunyin returned to Hangzhou to seek a plan to retreat from Fang La. The guard of Jiaoshan Temple has already surrendered. Please march on the fifteenth day of the fifth month. The battle will be a great victory."

Seeing this information, Tong Guan couldn't help but feel refreshed!
The day before yesterday, Zhao Ji sent Cai You to Yangzhou to work in the army.

After Cai You came, he honestly stayed in Yangzhou, and had no intention of going back to Bianliang City in Tokyo at all.

Cai You is the eldest son of Cai Jing, and currently holds the position of a Bachelor of Xuanhedian University.

As early as Song Zhezong's Yuanfu period, when Zhao Ji was still King Duan, every time Zhao Ji went to court, he would meet a handsome young man on the road. Every time the young man saw Zhao Ji, he would immediately dismount and stand with his hands up, respectful and courteous.

Over time, Zhao Ji asked his followers: "Who is this person?"

The entourage replied: "This is Cai You, the eldest son of Cai Chengzhi."

——At that time, Cai Jing had not yet achieved his ambition, and only held the post of Chengzhi in the Imperial Academy.

At that time, Cai You was even worse. He was only the supervisor of the Tailoring Institute—a small steward of a grassroots organization specializing in tailoring clothes and other supplies for the emperor.

It can be seen that Cai You is not capable, but he knows the secret of holding his thighs well if he wants to climb up.

In terms of getting promoted and getting rich, Cai You can be said to have completely inherited the wisdom of his father Cai Jing.

Later, shortly after Zhao Ji succeeded to the throne, he gave Cai You a Jinshi background and worshiped him as Secretary Lang.

Since then, Cai You's official position has continued to rise, and Zhao Ji has always favored Cai You.

Today, Zhao Ji and Cai You are not just a simple relationship between monarch and minister, but friends.

Do not laugh.

Other emperors may have no friends, but Zhao Ji does have friends.

——Wang Fu, Cai You, and Li Bangyan can all be regarded as Zhao Ji's friends.

Among them, the relationship between Cai You and Zhao Ji is the best, so good that in private, the two of them don't care about the etiquette of monarchs and ministers, and even Cai You's wife, Song Shi, enters and exits the palace as if she is at her own home.

And it is common for Cai You to stay overnight in the palace.

Of course, Wang Fu, Li Bangyan and others also had such treatment.

But the person Zhao Ji trusts the most is Cai You.

At this critical moment concerning the life and death of Zhao Song, Zhao Ji's purpose of sending Cai You to Yangzhou was like a bright mirror in Tong Guan's heart:
First, it must be because Zhao Ji sent Cai You to monitor Tong Guan because he was worried about handing over the whole country's army to Tong Guan's hands;
Secondly, it must be because Zhao Ji was dissatisfied with the fact that Tong Guan had sent troops to suppress the bandits for five months and had not made any substantial progress, so Cai You was sent to supervise the army.

Tong Guan also knew that Cai You had come, and if he still couldn't get results, then he might be the end of his job as a minister of Jiang, Huai, Jing, Zhejiang and other roads.

It was against this background that Tong Guan received a secret report from Yuwen Huangzhong.

As if he had found a treasure, Tong Guan ordered that all ships under construction must be delivered for use before May [-]th, and all military craftsmen and boatmen who could not be completed by the time limit were all assigned to Salmon Island.

The prisoner was sentenced to be assassinated on the island of Salmonella. Although he nominally went to the island of Salmonella to serve his sentence, it was actually a dead end. This is similar to the exile of prisoners in Ningguta in the Qing Dynasty. Basically, they never returned.

From this we can see how ruthless Tong Guan's order was.

At the same time, Tong Guan recruited Liu Yanqing, Xin Xingzong and others, and asked them to select soldiers who are good at water warfare as vanguards, and to formulate a battle plan for the entire army to cross the river.

Liu Yanqing, Xin Xingzong and others selected Wang Yuan as the vanguard after screening among the leading generals.

In this period, Wang Yuan despised wealth and favored righteousness. He once said: "The officials of the imperial court use nobles, and their feet are used to farm. If it is a knife, how can I love Juelu? If you are rich and powerful, Jia Xie!"

When he was young, Wang Yuan applied for recruits, and he was envoys in the war against Western Xia. He made many military exploits. He was awarded the third general of Xihe Lanhuang Road by the court of Zhao and Song Dynasties, and he had the right to know Ningyuan Village in Gongzhou.

When the Qiangs invaded the bandits, Wang Yuan won the crusade with the Jinglue envoy, and moved to the general of Huangzhou Fanbing and the master of Linzong village.

Today, Wang Yuan is already a well-known general in the Western Army.

What is rare is that Wang Yuan is one of the few generals in the Western Army who knows a little bit about water warfare.

Therefore, the burden of being a vanguard officer fell on Wang Yuan's shoulders.

It is worth mentioning that when Wang Yuan was selecting soldiers, he seconded Liu Yanqing's subordinate Han Shizhong.

The reason is that Han Shizhong once leaped his horse into the battle, beheaded the son-in-law of the Xixia army, won the three armies bravely, and is a rare general in the Western army who can fight in water...

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(End of this chapter)