All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 301 God-given opportunity, plotting against Youzhou Town
"Aye (father), I am back."

In the military dependents' village outside Qingchi County, the capital of Cangzhou, the tall and strong Wang Yanzhang pushed the door and entered the courtyard carrying half a pig.

His grandfather Wang Xiu came out of the house and said, "Your father has gone out to find a wife."

"Yeah, grandpa." Wang Yanzhang carried the pork and walked quickly to the kitchen. "It's hot and it's easy to spoil. Let's deal with it quickly."

It was only then that Wang Xiu saw the half pig that his grandson was carrying, and he was horrified. “What kind of pig is this? Why is it so strong?”

Pigs in the Tang Dynasty generally weighed about 100 pounds.

But the refrigerated pork that Chen Ran distributed, even if it was just one piece, weighed more than 100 kilograms, and it looked extremely visually impactful.

"A reward from the general."

Wang Yanzhang put the pork on the table and sighed, "If I had known that my father would bring this piece of meat with him when he went to propose marriage, it would have been great."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Aye Wang Qingzong's mumbling and shouting coming from the yard.

"Are you crazy? A divorced woman with a baby is asking for thirty strings of cash and thirty pieces of silk right out of the blue! You're really crazy!"

"Aye." Wang Yanzhang stepped forward and asked, "What's the matter?"

Wang Qingzong was still indignant. "Today, when I went to propose marriage, he asked for money right away. He wouldn't accept less!"

"The general has mentioned this." Wang Yanzhang thought for a moment and said, "There are more men than women. We have tens of thousands of troops coming at once. It's rare to have a place to settle down. When you are well fed and warm, you will want more money. The demand is higher than the supply, so the price is naturally high."

Chen Ran had tens of thousands of young and strong men under his command. Although many of them had families with them, most of them were single, especially the soldiers in Wei Bo Town whose entire families were killed.

After staying in Henghaijun for a long time, people gradually felt like settling down, and naturally many of them wanted to start a family.

For example, Wang Qingzong lost his wife at an early age, and now that he has a stable life, he is also considering remarrying.

Moreover, Chen Ran had enough food and wages, and his soldiers had no shortage of money and goods. When there were not enough women of marriageable age, the supply and demand relationship was not proportional, which naturally raised the conditions for getting married.

"Is that what the great general said?" Wang Qingzong nodded repeatedly, stroking his beard and smiling, "As expected of a great general, his comments are insightful and to the point."

Since their family joined Chen Ran, their lives have been getting better and better, so naturally, whatever the general says is right.

"Father." Wang Yanzhang led his father and grandfather into the kitchen and pointed to a piece of pork on the table. "This is a reward from the general. The salary I have received these days is all at home. Father, take it and propose marriage."

"My son Qilin has made great progress." Wang Qingzong was very happy. "From now on, the family will rely on you to support it."

Wang Yanzhang's grandfather Wang Xiu saw it clearly. He first glared at his stupid son who was always thinking about women, and then looked at his eldest grandson. "Why did the general give out rewards? Are you going to send troops?"

"Yeah, that's right." Wang Yanzhang nodded and said, "Zhang Gongsu, the governor of Youzhou, has arrived and asked the general to send troops to quell the rebellion. The general has agreed."

At the same time, in the military tent, Chen Ran was warmly entertaining Zhang Gongsu.

"Come, come, come~~~" He raised his wine glass and signaled to the generals, "Let's toast to Mr. Zhang and drink!"

Although Zhang Gongsu was the military leader of a vassal state, according to court practice, he was given the honorary title of Tongzhongshumenxia Pingzhangshi.

The Tang Dynasty court adopted the system of group prime ministers, and anyone in the three ministries could be called a prime minister.

All the generals raised their glasses and saluted Zhang Gongsu, "Mr. Zhang, please~~~"

Zhang Gongsu laughed heartily and raised his glass in a heroic manner, "I cannot refuse your kindness, I will drink first to show my respect!"

The atmosphere in the camp seemed lively on the surface, but everyone was secretly having their own thoughts.

Zhang Gongsu was defeated by Li Maoxun, a Uighur who was a prince appointed by the Tang Dynasty, and had to flee Youzhou Town in a panic.

On the way, he met an envoy sent by Chen Ran, who invited him to Cangzhou to discuss important matters.

Originally in history, Zhang Gongsu fled to Chang'an City after being defeated in the battle, and was soon exiled to Hanzhong and no news was heard from him since then.

Now that he saw that Chen Ran was willing to help, he immediately came to Cangzhou.

But Zhang Gongsu was not stupid. He knew that there was no free lunch in the world. If someone was willing to send troops to help, there must be something in return.

After three rounds of wine, five flavors of food.

Zhang Gongsu put down his wine glass and turned to the main topic, "General, after the matter is accomplished, how about I recommend you to the court to be the commander of the Henghai Army?"

The so-called "staying behind" means the deputy envoy of the Jiedushi.

When local vassal states changed their leaders at the end of the Tang Dynasty, they would usually call themselves the regent. When the imperial court came to confer rewards according to customary practice, they would be appointed as the Jiedushi.

These are the clear rules of this era.

Chen Ran smiled without saying anything and just lowered his head to eat.

This condition is simply ridiculous.

Pang Shigu, who was standing by, immediately said, "My general has already taken over Henghai Town. Why does he need the imperial court to confer him an honor?"

Zhang Gongsu thought to himself, "It seems that he is not stupid. I have to show him some real benefits."

"In that case." He gritted his teeth and said, "How about handing over the states that originally belonged to Lulong to the general?"

The full name of Youzhou Town is Youzhou Lulong Jiedushi. The original territory of Lulong Town has been annexed by Youzhou Town.

Chen Ran still kept his head down and ate, as if he heard nothing.

This time it was Liu Xun's turn to speak up. "Lulong Town is mostly occupied by Khitan, Bohai, and Xi people. What do we want that land for?"

Zhang Gongsu's face turned ugly. Doesn't this mean cutting off flesh?

He was silent for a long time, and then he spoke again with a sullen face, "Then how about Yi, Ding, and Heng three states?"

Yizhou is the area around Yi County, Dingzhou is Baoding, Hengzhou is Changshan County, and Shijiazhuang is the hometown of Zhao Zilong.

In Zhang Gongsu's view, dividing these three states was like cutting off one's own flesh.

Chen Ran finally put down his chopsticks and raised his head, his smile not diminishing. "Mr. Zhang, you have to understand that you have nothing now. All these places you promised are in the hands of Li Maoxun. No matter how much or how poor, you are essentially trading other people's things."

He simply raised a finger and said, "After this is done, you will still be the governor of Youzhou, but you will only be in Youzhou."

"What?!" Zhang Gongsu stood up suddenly, furious. "Only leave me Youzhou?!" "At least now I still have a chance to get Youzhou." Chen Ran responded leisurely. "If I go to Chang'an City, I won't even get a governor."

"Please think carefully, my husband. Should you go to Chang'an City and make a living by looking after others, or go back to take back Youzhou?"

Zhang Gongsu left the big tent and went to the place prepared for him to rest.

He gave away almost all the wealth of Youzhou Town, leaving only Youzhou. Although Youzhou was the richest place in Youzhou Town, he had no appetite to continue eating.

"General." Ge Congzhou asked, "Are you really going to leave Youzhou to him?"

"Yes, General." Everyone said, "Half of Youzhou's wealth, population, and soldiers are in Youzhou. Are you just going to give them up?"

"You people."

Chen Ran smiled and nodded at the generals, "Don't you understand? Using Zhang Gongsu is just for the sake of reputation, causing civil unrest in Youzhou Town. Besides, the local vassal towns are the ones who really make the decisions. When will it be the Jiedushi's turn?"

"In the vassal states, the ones who call the shots are always the guards."

"Zhang Gongsu sold out most of Youzhou Town. How could those guards tolerate him?"

"When he is killed by the guards, we will take over Youzhou in the name of revenge for him."

All the generals showed a look of sudden enlightenment on their faces and praised the general for his brilliant strategy.

Chen Ran has been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.

Known as the number one town in the world, Youzhou Town, where An Lushan made his fortune a hundred years ago, had more than 100,000 soldiers and horses.

Among them, there were tens of thousands of elite guards and guards outside the guards.

Moreover, they have horses, and if they form more cavalry, their fighting power will be really strong.

A frontal attack and forced breakthrough would mean a head-on confrontation with more than 100,000 elite Tang troops. Chen Ran did not have a hundred or eighty Maxim guns, so he was sure to be defeated.

Now, the Uighur chieftain Li Maoxun launched a surprise attack, seized Youzhou and became the Jiedushi, which first resulted in the Youzhou town being leaderless.

Although the Tang Dynasty did not care much about ethnic origins, Li Maoxun was the chief of the Uighurs after all. When there were benefits, he would definitely give them to his own people first. This would definitely offend the original beneficiaries of Youzhou Town, namely the guards.

What's more, seeing that Li Maoxun's risky attack had achieved rich results, the Xi people, Khitan people, Bohai people, etc., were all ready to move and consumed a lot of their energy.

Moreover, he also killed Chen Gongyan, who was a big boss in Youzhou Town. Many Youzhou soldiers secretly wanted to take revenge on him.

At this time, Chen Ran used Zhang Gongsu as his signboard to march into the almost divided Youzhou Town, and the resistance he encountered was definitely the least.

In this way, through various operations, you can step by step firmly control Youzhou Town in your own hands.

Chen Ran has never been afraid of fighting.

However, when he can use off-the-board tactics to weaken his opponent, he will use them.

After collecting the grain, Chen Ran left some soldiers to garrison various places in Henghai Army Town, and personally led nearly 20,000 combat soldiers from Yinqiang Xiejiedu and Zhuangshandu, as well as a large number of auxiliary soldiers and civilians, and under the banner of escorting Zhang Gongsu back to Youzhou, he marched north from Cangzhou in a mighty manner and directly entered the territory of Youzhou.

Just as he expected, the Youzhou soldiers along the way almost all stood by and watched, and no one sent troops to stop the fighting.

The army marched straight in and arrived outside the city of Youzhou.

The so-called Youzhou City is Jicheng, Ji County.

This is the seat of Youzhou Town and also the most prosperous place in the entire north.

Li Maoxun, who had seized Youzhou City by fraud, had no way to retreat. He could only bite the bullet and fight a decisive battle with Chen Ran outside Longhuo City in the south of the city.

The Uighurs were mainly composed of cavalry, so it was really difficult for them to defend the city.

During these days, Li Maoxun was not idle. He recruited a lot of people from the grassland, and when they gathered together, there were tens of thousands of people.

However, this time when they came out to fight, whether it was the guards inside the city or the guards outside the city, they all refused to support either side.

Even in the nearby Longhuo City, the defenders in the city closed their gates and stood on the top of the city to watch the fun.

It is obvious that Chen Ran's use of Zhang Gongsu as a banner is indeed useful.

After all, during the chaos of war between the warlords in the late Tang Dynasty, it was common for the warlords to borrow troops from each other.

The Tang Dynasty even sought to borrow troops from the Uighurs, but the condition was that the Uighurs were allowed to loot their cities, steal property, take the men as slaves, and rape the women.

Such a Tang Dynasty should have perished long ago!

The two sides deployed their troops and started fighting in front of tens of thousands of Youzhou soldiers.

Chen Ran’s tactics have always been so intuitive, simple and easy to understand.

Use the infantry phalanx as the central army's chopping board to oppress the enemy.

Use the cavalry as the machetes on both wings to cut off the enemy.

The Silver Spear Soldiers, whose number had exceeded ten thousand, formed into small square formations in teams.

The team with flags on their backs was running back and forth, trying hard to maintain the queue.

After that came the battalions, then the large square formation formed by wings, and finally the entire huge military column.

Faced with such a terrifying infantry phalanx, Li Maoxun and his son were scratching their heads.

Seeing that the enemy is well-equipped and in neat formation, it is obvious that they are well-trained. If we charge directly into their ranks, we will be seeking death.

But if you want to use mounted archery to harass the other side, there are nearly ten thousand cavalrymen!

Moreover, the soldiers in the front row, who were riding tall horses and even wearing horse armor on their horses, looked like they were not easy to deal with.

They had no choice, but they had to fight.

If they don't fight, they can only retreat. But if they retreat, no one in Youzhou Town will look up to them, father and son, and they will forget about staying in Youzhou Town.

Finally, the father and son decided to divide their forces and have Li Maoxun tie down the enemy's main force, while Li Keju would take the initiative to attack the enemy's main general with the Uighur cavalry!
To catch a thief, first catch the leader and take down the enemy general in one fell swoop!
(End of this chapter)