Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 795: Clear-Code Telegraph
There was an autumn rain in the afternoon of that day.

So the weather is especially cold at night.

It is still late autumn, but the night temperatures are almost dropping enough for the water to freeze over.

The old commander Wu Lin died of illness in Huangyangchuan that night.

All the generals in the tent were extremely sad, and the nephews and nieces of the Wu family were particularly grief-stricken.

Although they were all generals who had seen many life and death situations, they did not beat their chests and cry loudly, but their faces were full of tears.

As soon as Wu Lin died, Zhao Yi, the military envoy, became the supreme commander of the army.

Fortunately, Zhao Yi also knew that the news of the old commander Wu Lin’s death could not be announced rashly at this time.

Therefore, he chose to keep the death a secret.

Whenever the transfer of power is abnormal, the matter of "keeping the death secret" often occurs.

Because the illness or death of those in power is a very scarce and extremely useful resource.

"Keeping the news secret" can deceive opponents and leave room for behind-the-scenes operations.

For this army that was originally going to attack Guazhou, keeping the death a secret might buy more time for its stability.

When General Wu felt that things were not going well, he immediately submitted a letter to the court and made various preparations for the future.

In this case, keeping the secret for one more day would give the Song army a better chance of winning.

……

Tuoba Heiyi personally led more than a hundred cavalrymen and patrolled the road between Liangzhou and Lanzhou.

Ever since he made that judgment about Lord Zu Ru, he led his 3,000 elite cavalry, split them up into small groups, and dispersed them along the roads around Liangzhou.

With a team of more than a hundred light cavalrymen of the Western Xia army, if they did not encounter an equal number of Song cavalrymen, they would dare to fight head-on even if it was only five hundred infantrymen.

Of course, if they encountered the Song army's baggage train, they would still avoid it.

Although the baggage escort team would not be heavily armed, they could not be dealt with by just a hundred or so cavalrymen.

Over the past few days, they have also successfully intercepted some military books from the Song army.

Plain text letters usually do not have much value, and they could not decipher the coded military documents. After a few days, they were exhausted and Tuoba Heiyi could not help but doubt his own judgment.

He planned to hold out for two more days, and if he still had no gains, he would withdraw his troops and return to camp.

At this time, he encountered a Song army team of dozens of cavalry.

A few dozen riders can fight.

Moreover, Tuoba Heiyi always had a premonition that this time, he should be able to gain something.

Because among this cavalry, he saw two or three people who were obviously not the solemn border cavalry.

"Stop them, don't let any of them go!"

Tuoba Heiyi slowly drew his sword.

Perhaps, it was due to his keen awareness developed from his many years as a spy that he made an absolutely correct decision after making an accurate judgment.

First, the Xixia soldiers who were in ambush fired a volley of arrows. After successfully shooting and killing more than ten Song cavalrymen, they kicked their stirrups, drew their sharp sabers, left the saddles, shouted like wolves, and pounced on the enemy like wolves.

Although the total number of people on both sides was not large, the fighting was extremely brutal.

More than a hundred cavalrymen fought back and forth, with the sounds of horses trampling and weapons colliding, and people fell off their horses from time to time.

When the open land was littered with corpses and ownerless war horses, Tuoba Heiyi led the remaining Xixia cavalry and surrounded the last Song man.

He was wearing a round-necked robe, not a military uniform.

Carrying a bundle on his shoulder, Tuoba Heiyi narrowed his eyes and rushed forward with a knife.

The black horse passed by the man in round-collared robe who screamed and held his head.

Tuoba Heiyi's sharp long knife stabbed his bag, cut the bag in half, and threw the bag into the air.

The bundle opened and a bamboo tube fell from the air.

Tuoba Heiyi pushed his horse's head and stabbed the bamboo tube with the blade, piercing it and sticking it on the blade.

Tuoba Heiyi pulled the bamboo tube off the knife.

This thing is often used to deliver official letters.

Put it here to protect it from wind and rain. It is a very cheap and practical tool.

Tuoba Heiyi looked at the wax seal on the bamboo tube, put the knife back into the sheath with his backhand, and then punched the palm of his hand holding the bamboo tube.

The bamboo tube shattered, and Tuoba Heiyi's pupils suddenly froze.

Tuoba Heiyi, who had been in Lin'an for a long time and had infiltrated the Privy Council, recognized at a glance that it was Fuyang bamboo paper, the designated paper for important official letters.

And the dark pattern on the paper...

Tuoba Heiyi slowly opened it, and then he saw the following sentence:

"I, Zhao Yi, the Lixi Army's former envoy, hereby report the death of Lixi's commander Wu Lin. I hope the emperor will look upon this matter..."

This is just like how Liao Yaoxiang invented the coded telegraph, which brought disaster upon himself.

Zhao Yi, the military supervisor, knew the benefits of keeping the death a secret at this time.

However, without discussing it with anyone, he sent his personal soldiers to report this important news to Lin'an in a hurry.

Of course, the memorials submitted to the emperor could not be coded. Of course, for safety reasons, he sent some extra people...

……

After Tuoba Heiyi calmed down, he suppressed his excitement and ordered the soldiers to dispose of all the bodies of the Song army.

As for the bloodstains on the road, just ignore them.

This season is the time when the wind is strong and after a night of blowing, no traces of blood can be seen.

After throwing all the bodies into the dense forest a mile away, Tuoba Heiyi ordered his men to take the horses left behind by the Song army soldiers and quickly evacuate the area.

Tuoba Heiyi arranged for people to withdraw all his cavalry. He did not even wait for his subordinates to come back, and hurried back to the Baima Qiangzhen Military Headquarters to meet the great Confucian master Tuoba Hou.

Just half an hour later, one after another Xixia post soldiers from the Baima Qiangzhen Army rushed out on horseback.

At this time, it was already dusk, and Tuoba Hou did not wait until the next day, but sent out many postmen overnight.

They went to Zhuoluo and Nan Military Command, Xishou Baotai Military Command, Jingsai Military Command, and Xuanhua Gansu Military Command.

Soon, when the Wu family army withdrew its forces and entered a defensive state, most of the surrounding Western Xia troops left behind empty camps to deal with the Song army scouts, while their main force went out lightly and rushed towards Lingbo Mountain.

Liu Qi, who once served as the Protector General of Longyou, was stationed at the foot of Lingbo Mountain at this time.

……

The Song Dynasty court had already received Wu Lin's urgent military letter.

Wu Lin was bedridden for more than half a month, struggling hard, unwilling to die, just wanting to win more chances for the fighter plane.

As long as he is alive, the military spirit will still be there and the Western Army will have a backbone. It would be best if he could hold on until his son Wu Ting returns to take over.

Unfortunately, he did not live to see that day, and the one who came was not his son, but his nephew.

The person who came was not Wu Ting, but Wu Gong.

Wu Gong was the eldest son of Wu Jie, the former Sichuan Xuanfu Envoy, and also a fierce general.

On the eve of the "Shaoxing Peace Agreement", Wu Gong was the Youwulang and the Bingma Dujian of Jingyuan Road. Later, he served as the co-commander of the rear department, and was in charge of the four prefectures of Jie, Cheng, Xihe and Fengzhou, and the prefect of Chengzhou.

In the 29th year of Shaoxing, he was appointed as the deputy chief secretary of the Privy Council, the commander-in-chief of the imperial army stationed in the west route of Lizhou, and concurrently the deputy chief administrator of Jie, Cheng, Xihe and Fengzhou, and the governor of Chengzhou.

However, when the imperial court formulated a strategy against Xia and first reorganized the Western Army, that is, in the first year of Yang Yuan's departure for Sichuan, Wu Gong was transferred from the Sichuan-Gang region to serve as the governor of Hubei and Jingxi, becoming the commander-in-chief of the central military region of the army.

At this time, his status was no less than that of Yue Fei before the "Shaoxing Peace Agreement".

It can be seen that Zhao Yuan still highly valued these powerful generals of the Wu family. The only thing he was worried about was that they would guard one place for generations and would become warlords over time.

After he was transferred away from the Western Army, the imperial court still used him, but simply did not give him the opportunity to have many retainer-like generals.

Upon receiving the news that Wu Lin was critically ill, the court was also very panicked.

In this era, the head coach plays a very important role.

Especially with the backward communication conditions of this era, there are too many things that require you to make decisions on your own when you are away from home.

If there is a problem with the head coach, replacing him with someone else, even if he has the ability to make decisions, he will not have the convincing prestige.

We're at war, so won't there be big problems?
However, Wu Lin's designation of his son Wu Ting as the successor commander of the Western Route Army still displeased the young emperor.

The court ministers also had some complaints about this.

It is undeniable that General Wu is loyal, but he also has selfish motives.

Moreover, he clearly overstepped his authority.

You can recommend anyone to succeed you, but why should you designate one?
Of course, the most suitable person to calm this army in this critical moment must be someone from the Wu family, and must be someone who is highly respected in the Wu family.

However, whether out of the emperor's majesty or because they did not want the idea of ​​the hereditary commander of the Western Army to become more deeply rooted in people's minds, the court did not want to "let the tiger go back to the mountains" and let Wu Ting go to Western Xia.

But there are not many veteran generals in the court who can control the Western Army, and Wu Lin just died. Aren’t you afraid of killing another one?
He has to rush to take up the post. If we send an old man in his sixties, I'm afraid he will be exhausted to death when he arrives in Xixia.

Therefore, the prime minister of Wei and the king of Jin discussed it and proposed a compromise plan to the young emperor: send Wu Gong back.

Wu Gong was the son of Wu Jie, and the Wu family army grew stronger under Wu Jie.

With his qualifications, prestige and status, he is completely suitable to be the commander-in-chief of the Western Route Army.

Moreover, it will not provoke a fierce backlash from the Wu family.

However, for more than 20 years, it was Wu Lin who was in charge of the Wu family army.

No matter how close the uncle and nephew are, they are still not as close as father and son.

At this juncture, the imperial court would never dare to take the risk of a general without a Wu family background taking over the command.

However, he did not want the Wu family to further control the Western Army.

If they were allowed to make great contributions in Western Xia and be rewarded, a country within a country would be created.

Therefore, a buffer character was sent out: Wu Gong.

For more than 20 years, it was Wu Lin who was in charge of the Wu Family Army. Now, the one who took over the Wu Family Army is not Wu Lin's son, but his brother's son. This may somewhat loosen the stability of the Wu family's power.

Of course, if things turned out like what happened to the Guo brothers, and then there was another incident where Guo Yuxiu filed a complaint to the emperor, that was something the court definitely didn't want to see.

It has to be said that Wei Liangchen and Zhao Yu had a pretty good grasp of the balance within.

After receiving the imperial edict, Wu Gong immediately set out with light luggage, leading only 500 cavalrymen, rushing day and night to Western Xia, hoping to see his uncle for the last time before he died.

Unfortunately, before he left Lanzhou, the Xixia wolves had already smelled the blood and pounced viciously on the veteran Liu Qi.

(End of this chapter)