The Emperor ordered Zhao Tang

Chapter 145 The Dismounted Thief

"Mom, the harvest is good this year." The two sons sat on the edge of the field to take a rest, looking at the golden waves of millet with smiles on their faces.

"It's worth the year's hard work." The woman smiled slightly, bending down to pick up the fallen millet grains, and urged: "Hurry up and finish harvesting the grain and go home. Don't sit still, otherwise the bandits will come and kill you, and not a single grain will be left."

The sound of the wind alone was enough to scare people to death. The western bandits marched eastward in large numbers, killing people on horseback and setting fires when they dismounted.

"Here it comes." The son picked up the sickle and continued to work.

A few miles away from the mother and her two children, a large group of Han and foreign cavalry in mixed clothing had just crossed the river. Amanda and Zhao Chong stared at the endless plain and laughed.

"The bandits are coming!" A farmer in the field was frightened.

Soon, this group of thieves split into several groups and rushed into large tracts of fertile farmland along the paths and roads.

Shouts immediately rang out.

The mother and son who were cutting millet heard the noise in the distance and their faces turned pale.

"Boom." Scarlet flames shot up a foot high.

"Puff!" With a sharp thrust, the man was lifted high up by the lance.

Lao Ru knelt under the horse and begged the knights not to burn his millet fields.

"Gee!" The war horse rushed forward violently, and blood spurted out of Lao Ru's mouth and nose.

The Red Army poured into Shou'an County like a tide. After setting fields and woods on fire, the vicious knights dismounted and entered the villages to continue setting fire and destruction.

Several people broke open the wooden door and rushed into the thatched cottage, only to see a young girl wrapped in a tattered quilt huddled behind the door without even any clothes.

"Ah!" the woman screamed and the man laughed wildly.

More than 5,000 cavalrymen were so aggressive that no grass grew wherever they passed. These were Zhao Chong's soldiers. He was appointed by Zha Zhu to attack Ruzhou Road. After the army left Shanzhou, Zha Zhu dispatched his generals to attack from multiple directions. Zhao Chong made rapid progress. In three days, he broke through dozens of villages, passed Fuchang, crossed the Luo River, and rushed all the way to Shou'an County in Henan Prefecture. Later, he would go to Ruzhou and even Yancheng!
"Just create countless gangsters for Quanzhong. Whoever owns his people can love them. Haha." After chopping off the woman's head with a knife, Zhao Chong rode away: "Let's go to Yique!" The two bad guys took a short rest and then continued on their way without stopping.

The bandits would dismount from their horses in groups of hundreds, and would burn fields when they saw them. They would kill and plunder men and women, trample farmland, and destroy production. Sometimes they would rob counties and take away light supplies. They would be fickle, and their whereabouts were treacherous. The court had repeatedly issued orders to capture them, but they could not stop them. Now, Zhazhu had broken out of the encirclement organized by Henan Prefecture and began to invade the east. On the 27th, they invaded Xinzheng and once set fire to Weishi County, south of Bianliang, and were extremely arrogant.

The Queen Mother was furious and quickly replaced her generals and organized a second offensive. She appointed Ge Congzhou as the governor and commander of Shaanxi, Luo, Zheng, Chen, and Ruzhou, and transferred Ding Hui from the front line of Puzhou as his deputy to take charge of the military affairs in Henan, unify the command of the troops from various provinces assembled in Zhengzhou, and unite them to eliminate the evil obstacles such as Zhazhu, Zhao Chong, Gadbei, and Ashina Luoxue in the area of Xuchang, which is crisscrossed by water networks.

But the small number of cavalrymen in Daliang is a major flaw.

Daliang was not without cavalry. In the second year of Zhonghe, the various provinces took back Chang'an, and the Chaos Bandits were beaten to a pulp by the cavalry from Shuofang, Hedong and other places. In the Battle of Shayuan, they were slaughtered by the Shatuo people. Zhu Wen, who had a deep psychological trauma, took the throne and the first thing he did after he was crowned emperor was to set up a cavalry administration. But what can I say? Infantry can beat up the neighbors, so why spend money and energy on cavalry?
Before he became emperor, the only cavalry under his command that could be truly called a force was the Tabaidu, which was built by Zhang Cunjing and Xie Yanzhang with some of the sons of generals as the backbone. There were several thousand cavalrymen, who were skilled in riding and had a great presence in horse battles. The rest of the cavalrymen... it might be more accurate to call them mounted infantry. If they were faced with several thousand enemy cavalrymen holding five or six meter long horse lances and charging in a cone formation, they would most likely dismount and form a formation.

Ge Congzhou understood the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy and us. His idea was to build a circle of encirclement as soon as possible to trap the enemy in Henan Prefecture, and then learn from Liu Yu to use chariot warfare and terrain to seize the opportunity to defeat the enemy. To this end, Marshal Ge also reported to the Empress Dowager, ordering Zhang Quanyi to block the big hole in Tongguan to prevent Li Ni from sending more people to cause chaos, laying a solid foundation for the annihilation battle in Henan Prefecture.

But the situation may not go as planned.

On the second day of September in the second year of Jingfu, at this time of cool autumn, the war suddenly accelerated, and Li Ni once again launched a large-scale eastward invasion - after Yang Shouliang and Yang Shouxin wreaked havoc in Yanxiang, more than 40,000 people marched along the Lingbao Road to Shanzhou.

Bianliang was speechless. The elite troops were either marching north or confronting Shi Shenxiao, Zhu Jin, Shao Ze, and Yang Xingmi on the Hua, Cao, and Xu lines. The Kaifeng Prefecture had only 10,000 imperial guards. Could the state troops alone stop this bunch of killers? Emergency letters were constantly sent to Luzhou, and the Empress Dowager also wrote a letter, asking Zhu Wen to divide his troops to guard the Luo and Zheng passages, and not to let Shouliang capture a city and use it as a springboard for advancement.

This was not Li's original intention. Liang Han's army included not only local soldiers, but also the poor, captives, and southern barbarians that Liang had recruited in Shu. Li was worried that they would cause a rebellion, so he ordered them to leave Tongguan. He waited and monitored them in Chang'an until the two of them left, and then Li hurried to Zuo Fengyi.

Can Zhu Yougong and Zhang Quanyi stop the two Yang thieves?

Hard to say.

At the same time, Xin Qin governor Tuoba Sigong crossed the Wuding River to the east, and Xin Qin lieutenant Zhe Silun went south to Hehe Pass.

Two groups of troops attacked Shizhou from the northwest, harassing Sima Le without much trouble. They hadn't taken any heavy action yet, as if they were observing how the situation would develop - this battle would be a good opportunity to defeat An Lushan. If the saint lost, they would lose everything they had and how would they survive in the future. On the contrary, if the saint had the upper hand, they would rush into Shizhou without hesitation and capture and kill the thief.

The sage led 80,000 troops to occupy Pubanjin, and stationed them in Chaoyi, Hedong County, Huayin, Shouyang Mountain, and Taocheng, without crossing the river rashly. The latest news. Zhu Wen disappeared in Luzhou, and his whereabouts are unknown. His next move is unknown. He may move eastward and attack Yecheng directly while Wei Bo is attacking Huazhou. He may also turn to Fenzhou and go around to Jinyang to deal a fatal blow to Li Keyong. He may also lead his troops west to Ze and Jiang to seek a decisive battle with Li Ye. Looking at this posture, he has completely grasped the initiative on the battlefield.

On the third day of the Chinese New Year, under the night sky filled with ghostly shadows, a long dragon of red flames stretched forward like an endless sea of fire.

The army was in good order, but the soldiers were very agitated. Especially the people from Bian, they were full of energy and talked and laughed. Last time, Li the thief retreated to Tongguan, and there was really nothing we could do to him. This time, if he dared to come out and fight in the field, he would let the children know why the flowers in Caizhou are so red.

The Bian army that escorted Wang Gong to take office had a total of 20,000 infantry and cavalry. Zhu Wen did not have many direct subordinates, so he only dispatched two divisions from the Wude Army. The main force was mainly the Cai bandits who had been recruited, and the support governor Yin Tielin was also a Cai general. He was captured alive by Ge Congzhou, and Zhu Wen loved his talent and used him.

With these 20,000 backbones, plus the Gong and Yao tribesmen, would it be difficult to defeat Li's 70,000 or 80,000 troops?

"He charged into Guanzhong and killed Li Ye."

"I don't know who will get his wife and daughter. In the past, Emperor Yizong's concubine Guo Shufei was abducted by Lin Yan and brought to the camp. She gave birth to 17 children like a sow. In the end, she couldn't stand the beatings and went crazy. The Li family said that she was wandering among the people and her whereabouts are unknown. Who are they trying to cover up for? It's so funny!" "It's been a long time since we have captured captives. This time, old dog Zhu Wen is not here. We can eat meat after we capture Hezhong."

"Who are you trying to scare by beheading a group of people? When I was in charge of butchering, I cut two hundred bones a day, faster than killing pigs."

The baggage carts behind were full of jars and cans. As the car was bumpy, livers and meat pieces covered with salt were constantly scattered, leaving a trail of snow. It looked like the "salt corpses" that have been popular in recent years, but I don't know if they were made of pigs or sheep or something else.

Wang Gong and Yin Tielin rode side by side.

"How do you feel about this?" In order to thank Daliang for his timely help and to encourage Yin Tielin to fight with all his heart, Wang Gong catered to his wishes and cooked his two most lovely and flirtatious concubines for him. The lowly daughter born by Yang was also cooked into dry food, and now it is in Yin Tielin's hands.

"Tender! Tastier than lamb heart." Yin Tielin ate madly, his mouth full of blood. "After we capture Wang Ke and his wife, skin that princess and steam her too."

"It's a small matter." Wang Gong laughed.

Chong'er, I am coming with tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, are you afraid?
……

On the fourth day of September in the second year of Jingfu, Shouyang Mountain was shrouded in green mist.

The fog came and visibility was very low. The weather was a bit cold and the grass was wet. The saint was walking on the grass where the autumn rain had just stopped, holding a wooden stick. I caught a cold recently, and I felt dizzy and coughed all the time. My throat was sore from coughing.

"Cough——" The saint looked up and let out another long cough.

"Your Majesty, are you able to travel? How did you catch a cold? Were you frightened by Zhu Wen or what?
"Hurry up and get some honeysuckle and boil some hot water to drink."

"Why are you out here in the wind when you're sick? Go back to the camp and lie down." The soldiers talked in unison and looked at him worriedly.

"Do your job!" The saint kicked him.

Today was the last time they went out to work. Under the guidance of the saint, they destroyed the surrounding forests. Some of them were chopped into firewood and transported back to the camp, and the rest were piled with kerosene and burned together with the bushes until they turned black. It was a pity that it had rained, otherwise the fire would have burned everything and prevented Yin Tielin from setting up camp nearby.

Yes, we had to fight a field battle here. Defending the city? There were almost no dangerous passes in Hezhong Prefecture except Zhongtiao Mountain and Shouyang Mountain.

"Damn it, he became a scapegoat for Wang Ke and He Zhongwu." A soldier kicked a stone and cursed.

The battlefield has been moving around and now has come to the west.

Wang Gong, Wang Yao, and Yin Tielin arrived in Yuxiang, expecting to launch the challenge tomorrow.

Sima Le attacked Shizhou fiercely. Taiyuan was shocked when he heard the news. Li Kening, the governor of Beidu, sent 1,500 Zhenwu troops and Liu Zhen, the envoy of Zheluo Ping, and Wang Yanzhao, the envoy of Kelan Army, to come to the rescue.

He Wei, the governor of Shanzhou, followed the order of Empress Tianhou to cross the river and attack the salt pond in Jie County, where he was fighting with Chen Xiong.

Zhu Wen had already led 50,000 elite troops out of Luzhou.

His plan to surround the enemy and attack the reinforcements had failed. The fact that Gong and Yao had risen up in Jin and Jiang to fight for the throne blocked Li Ni's path to the east to aid Luzhou. What reinforcements could he attack? Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the situation had changed.

After Kou Yanqing successfully instigated Wang Gong to rebel, Zhu Wen no longer had to wait in Luzhou for Li Ni to take the bait. He could directly fight Li Ni, which would have a much higher chance of winning than fighting the three armies of Pu, Jin, and Tang under the city of Luzhou, and would also save trouble. If Li Ni was defeated and the situation was used to seize control of Banjin, the three prefectures would be separated by a river.

What if Li Keyong comes to the rescue or stabs him in the back?

Haha, don't worry, Zhu Wen is not a fool, and his eyes are not blind. He has stockpiled heavy troops in Ze, Lu, and Yangjiaoshan, and has also sent troops to Taiping Pass, the throat connecting Fenshui Valley and Cizhou. Li Keyong wants to help, but he should first consider the consequences of being attacked by Zhang Guiba, Shi Shucong and other generals in Jinyang. In addition, he also instructed Wang Rong to launch an attack on Xing, Ming, and Ci, waiting for an opportunity to capture and kill Concubine Liu.

A messenger also came from Youzhou, and Li Kuangchou was preparing to take action against Weizhou.

Mr. Li was speechless. Zhu Wen's main force was concentrated in the three war zones of Lu, Hua and Xu. If Zhao Kuangning, Wang Shifan, Zhu Xuan, Zhu Jin, Tian Xide and Yang Xingmi worked together, they would also have hundreds of thousands of victorious troops and would easily disgust Zhu Wen.

It's a pity that this can't become a reality. Wei Bo played a fake game and made a fuss in Huazhou, probably waiting for the news of Li Keyong's death. Only when this aggressive neighbor died, Wei Bo would probably fight to the death against Zhu Wen. Zhu Xuan fought with Bian several times, and lost all his elite troops. Now only the militia is left.

Zhu Jin was brave, and he still had some energy, but he was a cavalry general, and he was really weak in foot combat. The saint even suspected that Zhu Jin's ability to deploy troops was not as good as his own. My God, 30,000 strong soldiers were killed by less than 10,000 Bian troops, and he escaped alone. Is this a human? Fighting with his eyes closed? It's a miracle that he can survive until now and not be chopped by the Yanzhou warriors.

Things in this world are mostly like this, with intrigue and calculations against each other.

The current situation in Hebei is still interesting.

On the fifth day, the Jinjiang rebels and Yin Tielin arrived on time just as he had expected.

It was also on this day that Yang Shouliang defeated Zhang Quanyi in Mianchi County. The Heyang army was chased and killed for more than ten miles, with tens of thousands of corpses piled up. Zhu Wen also went to Wenxi and sent a letter of persuasion to Chen Xiong. His father-in-law decisively gave up the salt pond and led his troops to flee to Shouyang Mountain.

　I'm in a bad mood and not in good condition. Please forgive me for the slow update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)