subvert the late Tang Dynasty

The bandit suppression work in Bozhou and Yingzhou went very smoothly, and the bandit army was quickly driven out of the jurisdiction. Qin Zongquan was sharing the spoils with Lu Yanhong in Xuzhou, and he had no time for others.Generals such as Sun Ru, Qin Zongheng, Lu Tang, and Liu Jianfeng were all away in battle. Zhang Xun and Qin Xian were newly defeated in Bianzhou, and they were preparing to rectify their army and horses and go north again.

However, Qin Zongquan knew that Zhu Wen was not easy to deal with, so he didn't dare to attack rashly. After hearing about it, Lu Tang, who had just been driven out of Bozhou, suggested: "Just now that Zhu Wen is not in Bianliang, he has dispatched a large number of cavalry. Liang’s defense must be empty, so we might as well take this opportunity to go north to Bianliang, and it’s unknown if we can take Bianliang in one fell swoop.”

Qin Zongquan took it for granted, so he ordered Qin Xian, Lu Tang, and Zhang Xun to go northward in three directions and gather under Bianliang City, trying to take Daliang before Zhu Wen returned to Daliang City. As long as he took Daliang, Bianzhou would be in his pocket up.

Daliang is located in Zhongzhou, with fertile land, and has always been the center of economy and politics. In addition, Daliang is close to the eastern capital Luoyang, which makes Daliang's location even more important.

And Zhu Wen was still stranded in Bozhou, arranging for the comfort of the people. After the war, many people were displaced, and they didn't even have houses.Fortunately, it will be the autumn harvest season soon, and the rice in Yingzhou can also be harvested with little food, while Bozhou, Songzhou and other places are mainly planted with cash crops, and the food is mainly grains, sorghum and other miscellaneous grains.

Zhu Wen decided to continue to buy grain from the south. Except for the frequent wars between Dong Chang and Qian Liu's Hangzhou and Liu Hanhong in western Zhejiang in the past two years, other places in the south are relatively stable and the grain harvest is good.Food prices in the South are relatively low.

Although Bozhou is not very rich in food, but there is no shortage of money. A large number of cotton cloths are sold to the neighboring towns, as well as the mass production of Gujing tribute wine, plus the income of the bank, and the nearby coal mines and iron mines that have started to be mined Resources such as copper mines and copper mines have allowed a large amount of silver to flow into Bozhou.Now these mines and factories are still run by the government. To put it bluntly, they are all Zhu Wen's industries.

All these industries are booming under Kang Jian's management, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they are making money every day.

What Zhu Wen wants is to operate Bozhou as a rear base mainly based on the economy, which can drive the employment of nearby refugees and earn a lot of money and food. After all, wars are fought with money.There is no place that does not require money for food and military pay. Without money, nothing can be done. Relying on war alone to support war can no longer satisfy the increasingly strong strength of the Xuanwu Army.Zhu Wen knew this very well, but he didn't know that another big war was about to break out in Bianzhou, his base camp.

Songzhou Zhang Qianyu and Li Si'an's troops first discovered Qin Xian's traces, but the enemy's troops were too many, and they did not dare to attack.

I had to hurriedly notify Xu Huaiyu who was stationed in Bianliang, and Zhang Cunjing, who was temporarily in Songzhou, also secretly gathered 5000 people to go to Bianliang for help.Due to the rapid march of the enemy army, when the news reached Zhu Wen in Bozhou, the enemy army had already arrived outside Daliang City and began to attack Weishi Gate.

Fortunately, Daliang had already received the news, and all preparations were adequate. Jing Xiang and Xu Huaiyu cooperated well, and the large catapult at the head of Daliang could throw special bombs, so they could barely resist the enemy.

But Qin Zongquan's troops are not fools either. After suffering a few losses, the siege team is very scattered. It's not like rushing forward like it was at the beginning. Now the large bombs thrown in Bianliang can't kill too much. Enemy gone.However, after the troops were dispersed, the enemy's siege power was also relatively weakened. Large-scale siege equipment such as chariot ladders could not be transported to the bottom of the city at all, and they were bombarded after entering the attack range of the catapult at the top of the city.Therefore, for a while, Qin Xian and his three troops could not attack Bianliang.

Fortunately, when the bandits attacked Daliang last time, the surrounding areas of Daliang City had already been fortified and cleared. There was no human habitation within a hundred miles of Daliang.After the food transport team was robbed twice by Zhang Qianyu and Li Si'an, the enemy's food and grass began to be tense, but they were still able to last for more than ten days.

After Zhu Wen heard the news, he didn't care about Bozhou's affairs anymore, and took Pang Shigu and other 5000 people to go north to Bianzhou.The news reported that the enemy army had 6 horses. If we really fought a tough battle, I might not be their opponent.

The 6 enemy troops were divided into three groups, and 24 company battalions were set up to surround Bianzhou. It seemed that they were determined to win.

Although Xu Huaiyu was relatively stable, he couldn't help but feel his scalp tingling, and discussed with Jing Xiang about going out of the city to rob the camp. Of course, Jing Xiang disagreed, and advocated to wait and see what happened, guard the city firmly, and wait for Zhu Wen's reinforcements.In fact, Jingxiang also made the safest plan, because now the only person in the city who can control the situation is Xu Huaiyu, and no one else is in the city.If Xu Huaiyu made a mistake, Daliang City might be in crisis.

But Xu Huaiyu didn't think so, because Xu Huaiyu thought that even if Zhu Wen's troops arrived, he would not have an advantage in his own forces, so it would be better to take a risk.

Xu Huaiyu had made a plan, and that night he summoned five hundred death squads, explained the situation Daliang was facing, and explained the danger of the trip in advance, so that the soldiers could participate voluntarily.

Xu Huaiyu said: "As the so-called raising soldiers for a thousand days and using them for a short period of time, Lord Hou treats us well. Now that Lord Hou is not in Daliang, the enemy army is coming to attack. Can we just sit and wait for death? Even if Lord Hou came in person, he wanted to solve the current predicament. It is also necessary to use surprise soldiers. So I plan to go out of the city tonight to attack the enemy's camp, but this time I will almost die, and those who don't want to go tell me in advance, so as not to regret it later."

Those selected by Xu Huaiyu were all elites in the army. Of course, no one would consider himself a coward in front of so many people, and they all rushed to go.

Xu Huaiyu said that someone had brought thirty thunderbolts each, as well as flammable materials such as sulfur. destroy.

Everyone packed up and went out of the city very quietly in the second watch. The hooves of their horses were wrapped in cotton cloth, and their mouths were covered with chewing heads. They tried to avoid making noise from the horses. The weapons were also painted black to avoid revealing their whereabouts due to reflections. .

After Xu Huaiyu left the city, Jing Xiang received the news, trembling with anger, and secretly scolded Xu Huaiyu for being too reckless.But the matter has come to this point, Jing Xiang has no choice but to order the rest of the soldiers to guard the city gate and wait for the development of the situation.

Just in case, Jingxiang had to choose a general in the city who could replace Xu Huaiyu to stabilize the army's morale, but he couldn't find anyone who could stand on his own. More than 200 guards of honor will also participate in the defense of the city. These guards of honor are big and thick, and they can bluff people by standing there, but I don’t know if they have any real skills. Do you want to see them?”

Jing Xiang calmed down his anxious mood, and sighed: "They also have a sincere heart. Since Liu Han has this heart, we can't let him chill. Let him come in."

Not a moment later, a young man with big shoulders, round waist and dignified appearance came in, saluted Jingxiang first, and said directly, "Now that Daliang is trapped by bandit soldiers, how can there be any eggs in the nest? Yes The brothers in our guard of honor are also willing to join the battle and contribute to the defense of Daliang."

Seeing Liu Han's extraordinary appearance and decent speech, Jing Xiang asked casually, "I don't know what Captain Liu thinks about the current situation?"

Liu Handao: "Now there are only two ways. One is to defend the city and wait for Lord Hou to come back. But the enemy army has 8000 people. If Lord Hou comes back, he can only bring thousands of troops. It is estimated that Songzhou can mobilize no more troops. It will exceed [-], and the combined army of the two armies is no more than [-] people. They still do not have an advantage in terms of military strength. If they want to win, the only way is to use surprise soldiers. The second way is to directly use surprise soldiers to attack the enemy camp at night and break the enemy's morale. If If we succeed, we can turn the tide of the battle. Just wait for Lord Hou to come back, we will fight out from the city and cooperate with Lord Hou to defeat the enemy. Although there are many enemy troops, they are scattered, and they don't know how many troops Hou Ye will bring when he comes back. There are still seven to eight thousand people in our city, enough to fight the enemy."

Seeing Liu Han's eloquent words, Jing Xiang couldn't help admiring the captain of the guard of honor. He and Xu Huaiyu had also analyzed these two methods. Knowing the thoughts of the two of them, Jing Xiang couldn't help but secretly amazed that the captain of this small guard of honor can think of these things and analyze the pros and cons of the two methods in a logical manner.

In fact, Jingxiang also knew that it was a good way to go out of the city to rob the camp. Even if Zhu Wen came back, he would have to send out surprise troops to win the victory. It's not that easy anymore.But the key point is that there must be a general to go out of the city to rob the camp. Ordinary mediocre generals are just sent to death. The only good general in the city is Xu Huaiyu, so Jing Xiang advocates defending the city.

Liu Han saw that Jing Xiang was thinking foolishly, of course he also knew that Xu Huaiyu was the only general in the city, and the others couldn't bear the heavy responsibility, so he thought Jing Xiang was considering who would rob the camp.Immediately said: "Although the general is a humble official in charge of etiquette and honor, he has also studied the art of war and even practiced martial arts. If you trust the general, he is willing to lead hundreds of people out of the city to rob the camp."

Jing Xiang sighed and said: "It would be great if the general came a few hours earlier. General Xu has already led 500 troops out of the city. I am afraid that a fight has already begun. You can stay with me for a while. Let's go to the city to see the enemy camp." situation."

Jing Xiang felt that Liu Han was a talent and wanted to promote him, but Jing Xiang didn't say it in advance, he wanted to observe for a while before speaking.After all, there are plenty of people who can only talk about it, and whether they have real skills depends on their actual actions.