Late Tang

(The new year is here, and the new month begins. Happy New Year’s Day everyone, please guarantee the monthly pass!)

Mazhou, also known as Ma Tuosha, is later known as Jingjiang, Jiangsu. At this time, it is still a large sandbar in the Yangtze River. It is more than a hundred miles upstream of Hudouzhou and slightly smaller than Hudouzhou.

At this time, fighting continued on Hu Douzhou, but Zhou Bao, the governor of the Zhenhai Navy, was mantis catching cicadas, and the oriole was behind, secretly gathering troops.On the sandbar on the horse's back, there is a army of soldiers and horses in the navy at this time.

This army is the Eight Capitals of Hangzhou, but strictly speaking, the Eight Capitals of Hangzhou are not the town navy.

Zhexi Town has given the township a navy, but the towns in the southeast have always been rich but not equipped with military equipment. This is a wealth-based vassal town with money but no soldiers.Zhen Haijun had only a few thousand troops in the early days. Wang Ying rebelled a few years ago. At the beginning, it was just a few dozen soldiers from Langshan Town on Hudou Island. There are more than ten states in western Zhejiang and eastern Zhejiang.

At that time, in order to protect themselves, the nobles in the prefectures and counties of Zhejiang and Zhejiang set up landlord armed forces and formed township soldiers.

Hangzhou city successively established eight such landlord armies, and because each of them was not in large numbers, they were called all.Among the eight capitals, Shijingdu is the main one.

They were all organized for the army of the late Tang Dynasty. At first, there were thousands of people per capital, but later they were often dissatisfied. By the early Song Dynasty, it had become hundreds of people per capital.As for the Eight Capitals of Hangzhou, the number of soldiers varies from one hundred to several hundred. After several years of development, the number of soldiers in the Eight Capitals of Hangzhou, originally established to defend Wang Ying, has already exceeded a thousand. .

The governor of Hangzhou under the navy of Zhexi Town has actually been evacuated by the eight capitals.

The capital of Shijingdu is Dong Chang, a very rich local tyrant in Lin'an City, Hangzhou.During the Wangying Rebellion, he began to raise a banner to recruit soldiers from the countryside, and became a small overlord.At this time, Shi Jingdu under Dong Chang's men already had five thousand soldiers, and they were indeed powerful.

In history, Dong Chang started his business by relying on Shi Jingdu, and later entered Hangzhou, claiming to be the governor of the capital, and pretending to be the governor of Hangzhou. Zhou Bao had to grant him the title of governor of Hangzhou.After that, Dong Chang's influence continued to expand, and he successively served as Jiedu Envoy of the Yisheng Army, and Youpushe, the Minister of Inspection.After the Huangchao uprising army withdrew from Chang'an, Tang Xizong returned to the capital from the middle of Shu, and Dong Chang took the books collected by the Yuemin Pei family and presented them, and was awarded the post of envoy of various Taoists to interview books.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court successively granted Dong Chang the title of Taiwei of the school, Tongzhong Shumenxia Pingzhangshi, and was promoted to the title of King of Longxi County.

Since then, Dong Chang's ambitions have grown bigger and bigger, and he asked the court to be named King of Yue, but he was unsuccessful, and he was very dissatisfied.Later, Dong Chang established himself as emperor according to Yuezhou, the country was named "Dayue Luoping", and he called himself a saint.

Although there was no Dayue Luoping established by Dong Chang in the history of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Qian Liu, the founder of the Wuyue Kingdom in the Five Dynasties, was actually Dong Chang's subordinate.It can even be said that in history, Dong Changneng went from a local tyrant in Lin'an to a warlord who ruled the two Zhejiang provinces in the late Tang Dynasty, and even proclaimed himself emperor all the way. In the end, the Luoping Kingdom of Dayue was quickly annihilated.

It is said that when Qian Liu was born, the room was filled with red light, accompanied by the sound of soldiers and horses.This is an ominous sign for his father, Qian Kuan, who wanted to throw him into the well, but was stopped by his grandmother.Therefore, Qian Liu got the nickname "Poliu".Qian Liu learned martial arts since he was a child. He is good at archery and spear dancing, and he has a little knowledge of prophecy and weft books.After growing up, he did not engage in proper work and made a living selling illegal salt.

This year, Qian Liu is 28 years old and is the number one general under Dong Chang, the head of Shi Jingdu.

Like Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao, Qian Liu also came from the line of private salt dealers who produced the most heroes in the late Tang Dynasty.

Five years ago, when Li Jing resolutely replaced the village head's son and enlisted in the United Army, Qian Liu joined Dong Chang's team of township men at about this time.However, compared with Li Jing's legendary experience, Qian Liu's experience is not ordinary.

After the first few years of silence, Qian Poliu, with the courage she had honed in her salt smuggling career, finally became an astonishment.

In the first few years when Qian Liu joined Shijingdu, he followed Dong Chang and fought with anti-Tang armed forces such as Wang Ying, Zhu Zhi, Zhang Duan, Cao Shixiong, etc., but due to the weak strength of the soldiers, there was nothing eye-catching excellent performance.

When Huang Chao attacked Hangzhou for the first time, the eight capitals of Hangzhou did not dare to resist and shrank aside.

But when Huang Chao's partial division attacked Hangzhou for the second time, Shi Jingdu and the salt dealer surnamed Qian finally had a chance to prove their worth.

When Huang Chao attacked Hangzhou for the second time, the Zhenhai Jiedu at that time was neither Zhou Bao nor Gao Pian, but only a partial division of more than [-] people entered Hangzhou at that time, but the number was more than that of Shi Jingdu at that time. More horses.

At that time, when Qian Liu learned that Huang Chao's army was coming, he advised Dong Chang: "The Huang Chao army has tens of thousands of people. If they want to cross the valley, they must be far away from each other, and it will be difficult to meet them. We should choose a suitable place to ambush us." If you can defeat him, you will be able to repel his attack on Lin'an." Dong Chang didn't want to be a praying mantis blocking traffic, so he hid far away last time, isn't it all right?Unable to withstand Qian Liu's repeated persuasion, he still agreed, but only gave him twenty soldiers.That meaning is quite clear, if you don't dare to go if you think it's too little, you can't blame me!

Unexpectedly, Qian Liu went anyway. He fell down in the forest and shot down the general of the Huang Chao army with an arrow, disrupting the formation of the Huang Chao army.Encountered an unexpected situation, the "rebel army" hastily formed an army, and the shortcomings of low quality were exposed. The 2000 people were like ants that had been stabbed in their nests. They only wanted to run for their lives, but they were defeated by Qian Liu's 20 people. They trampled on each other on the mountain road, causing countless casualties. Small.

After repelling the vanguard of Huang Chao's army, Qian Liu also knew that this kind of ambush was inevitable.So he accepted it as soon as he saw it, and took advantage of the victory to retreat. When passing by a small shop on the side of the road, Qian Liu had a plan, and said to the old woman who opened the shop: "Wait a while, if a team of soldiers and horses arrive, they will ask you if you have seen them?" If you pass us, tell them that the troops in Lin'an are stationed for eight hundred miles."

Later, when Huang Chao's army arrived, the general leading the team asked the woman, and the woman truthfully told Qian Liu's message.The general didn't know that Babaili was a place name in Lin'an, and thought it was Zhen Haijun who mobilized troops in Lin'an.

At that time, this army was not the main force of Huangchao, but a partial division, and it was unclear for a while. Thinking about the fact that only a few dozen people had repelled 2000 people before, they didn't dare to take risks. They simply turned around and Hangzhou escaped once. The military disaster made Qian Liu and Dong Chang famous in one fell swoop.

Later, in the battle where the Zhen[***] navy went south to encircle and suppress Wang Ying, Hangzhou Badu also sent troops to beat the dog in the water.Dong Chang's troops recruited troops to buy roads, and the number of soldiers and horses expanded a lot. Dong Chang was awarded the title of general of Shijing Town, and Qian Liu, as the number one general under Dong Chang, was also promoted by Dong Chang to be the military envoy of Shijing Town Yamen.

After Zhou Bao took office as the governor of the Zhenhai Navy, the eight capitals of Hangzhou were already a bit overwhelmed, especially Shi Jing had five thousand troops, and the rest of the capitals also had two or three thousand troops. The combined strength of the eight capitals of Hangzhou reached 2 horses.Although it is said that most of the soldiers of the eight capitals are just rural braves, because each of them is armed by landlords, the generals of the eight capitals are also rich local tyrants who spend money on equipment. A strength not to be underestimated.

Even Zhou Bao, although he has continuously strengthened his navy in the past few years, if he wants to move the Eight Capitals, he still has to think about it.

However, Zhou Bao has been through many battles and experienced many towns, so he is not the civil servants sent by the imperial court.Although on the surface he has never touched the eight capitals, in fact he has always regarded the eight capitals as a confidant's trouble. This time, Zhou Bao played both soft and hard ways, transferred the Hangzhou eight capitals, and sent them directly to Ma Tuosha.

In the temporary military tent of Shangdong Chang in Ma Tuo Shazhou, the eight capitals of Hangzhou will gather together with their generals to discuss matters.

Dongchang, capital of Shijing, Lin'an County, Chen Sheng, capital of Qingping, Yuhang County, Wu Wenju, capital of Yuqian County, Xuji, capital of Yanguan County, Duling, capital of Wu'an, Xincheng County, Raojing, capital of Tangshan County, Fuchun, Fuyang County Du Wenyu, Longquan County Longquan Du Ling Wenju.The eight capitals will gather together, although Qian Liu is only the deputy town of Shi Jingdu, but Shi Jingdu has five thousand soldiers and horses under his command, and with Qian Liu's reputation, he also has a seat among the crowd at this time. Generals can only stand behind their own generals.

"Everyone, Marshal Zhou has sent an order that all of us will attack Hu Douzhou immediately after dark." Dong Chang glanced at the generals and said in a deep voice.

Chen Sheng, the general of Qingping in Yuhang County, immediately asked, "Does Zhou Shuai really want to fight Huainan Gao Shuai?"

It is a fact that Zhou Bao, the commander in chief of his family, and Gao Pian, the commander in chief of Huainan Jie, are now at odds with each other, especially since Li Jing stationed troops at the mouth of the Yangtze River between the two families, the atmosphere has become more dignified.It seemed that the two families had expected to fight in the end, but everyone felt a little shocked that a fight was really going to happen.

No matter what you say, the world is still Li Tang's world today, and the two generals are also Li Tang's Jie Shuai and the county king. The people below are still a little confused.Although the eight capitals are not small now, each of them will be one of the most wealthy families in Hangzhou counties, and now they have military power in their hands, and they usually don't even pay attention to the governor of Hangzhou.But in the face of Zhou Bao, the commander of the Zhenhai Festival, who came from a family of the Forbidden Army, no one dared to have any thoughts of obedience and injustice.

Sitting on the side, Qian Liu sneered a few times and said: "If you don't really do it, do you pretend to do it? The opposite Marshal Gao has already attacked the king of Qin. The king of Qin holds the seal of the commander-in-chief of the Guandong soldiers. Gao Shuai not only did not obey the orders of the king of Qin, but also dared to attack Hu Douzhou went to the Qin army, which is tantamount to rebellion. We waited for the eight capitals of Hangzhou to be loyal to the Tang Dynasty and obey Zhou Shuai's mobilization, and now we will naturally send troops to attack Gao Shuai."

The relationship between Gao Pian, Zhou Bao, and Li Jing is naturally clear to everyone.

Although they were still shocked that Gao Pian dared to attack Li Jing, everyone understood Zhou Bao's intentions.Gao Pian dared to hit Li Jing, and then he dared to hit Zhou Bao. If Zhou Shuai didn't want to be beaten passively, this time is naturally the most suitable time to make a move.

However, everyone was also shrewd, and had heard some hidden meanings from Qian Liu's words.

"Did Zhou Shuai only send us eight capitals to send troops?"

"Although Liang Yan has almost captured Hu Douzhou, his men also suffered heavy casualties, 5 horses. According to Zhou Shuai's news, there are less than 2 horses left. And we also have [-] soldiers in the eight capitals of Hangzhou. Zhou Shuai meant that we should go down the river and encircle Liang Yan on Hudou Island first, and the other brothers of Zhen Haijun will come to reinforce them later." Dong Chang said what Zhou Bao meant.

Although some people still suspected that Zhou Bao wanted them to spend with the Huainan army, but since the military order had been issued, no matter what, they could only trust Zhou Bao for the time being and send troops first.

"Immediately send out troops after dark, carry the horses from the sandbar to Hudouzhou for more than a hundred miles, and go down the river. We can reach it in the middle of the night, just in time to catch Liang Yan by surprise!" Qian Liu clenched his fists and sneered.

If Liang Zuan can be defeated, then this battle will also be extremely helpful to the reputation of the Eight Capitals of Hangzhou.In particular, among the words handed down by Zhou Bao, Dong Chang and Qian Liu didn't say anything directly. Now, Zhou Bao has said that if the Eight Capitals of Hangzhou defeat Liang Zuan and occupy Hudouzhou, then the many money, food and commodities in the warehouses on Hudouzhou can all belong to the Eighth Capital.The money, food and goods merchants on Hudouzhou are a huge fortune. If not for this, Dong Chang would not have agreed to send troops tonight so easily. (To be continued.)