Song Dynasty

Chapter 213 Westward Journey ([-])

Huguang is cooked, the world is full.

Five days later, Wang Shen's western expedition army had arrived in Huangpi County.Speaking of which, Huangpi County is also a county under the jurisdiction of Huangzhou led by Wang Shen.It's just that once the bandit army fell, all the officials here fled, and they no longer care about the boundaries.

early morning.

It is already summer, the sky is high and the clouds are clear, the vision is clear, the wind howls across the wilderness after the drought, and the long grass is stirring, making the great plain in the distance look like an endless green ocean.

To the west, to the west, to the west, to the west is the affluent Jianghan Plain.Standing on the dilapidated Huangpi city wall without any defenses, Wang Shen held a small wooden basin, and while quickly pulling rice grains into his mouth with chopsticks, he looked greedily at the vast western plain and the clear horizon.

There is not much food and grass left in the army, and the soldiers have changed from three meals a day to two meals a day.There is no meat, vegetables and fruits at all. Even a commander like Wang Shen has not seen any meat for several days.This rough brown rice is stuffed into the mouth, tasteless like sawdust, like taking medicine.

Yes, this is medicine, to cure the sickness of hunger.

It is strange to say that there is no oil star, but the appetite is good.In the past, eating half a catty of rice was enough, but now after swallowing a catty, I still feel empty in my heart.

After roughly calculating, in another five or six days, I won't even be able to eat this brown rice.

Anlu must be taken within five or six days to replenish military supplies.

In the ancient times when there was no pollution and no smog, standing on a high place, in such a blue sky, it was easy to see the majestic mountains hundreds of miles away.That is the tall and straight Dabie Mountains that stretch for thousands of miles.Further west, there are Dahong Mountain and Jingshan Mountain.

This series of majestic mountains forms a huge barrier, isolating the cold weather in the north, making the Jianghan Plain mild.It also blocks the water vapor from the south, making it rainy and criss-crossing rivers.A large number of rivers brought fertile soil, making the Jianghan Plain the most important granary in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and now the entire Southern Song Empire.

The Jianghan Plain starts from Yichang in the west, ends at Huangshi in the east, starts from Suizhou in the north, and connects with the Dongting Basin in the south, covering an area of ​​about [-] square kilometers. Cities directly under the county-level province, Jingmen and parts of Yichang.

In this era, because it has not suffered from military disasters, absorbed a large number of refugees, and added countless products, it is simply one of the two purest jewels in the imperial crown, and the other is the Sichuan Basin that is still at peace.

In the context of corruption throughout China, the political, economic, and military significance of the Jianghan Plain can almost be compared with Jingzhou during the Three Kingdoms period.Moreover, this place borders on the east of Henan and Shaanxi, and it can easily reach the mountains, Shaanxi, and Henan if it has been strong in the north. This is probably the reason why Guan Yu wanted to defend this place during the Three Kingdoms period, and Yue Fei's Northern Expedition started from here!
If the entire Sizhou army moved with high morale, Wang Shen had no doubt that this pearl would fall into his own hands.

As long as you get this fertile land and get manpower and material supplements, no one can stop your rise.

Of course, Zhang Yong, Cao Cheng and others who entered the Jianghan area in one step before Wang Shen have also been greatly supplemented.As for their current situation, the spies of Chen Da's Military Jurisdiction Department were busy with the crusade against Kong Yanzhou a while ago, so the information they returned was very limited.

However, based on historical data, it is inferred that this group of thieves made a fortune abroad.In real history, because Zhang Yong, Cao Cheng and other rogue armies occupying Anlu blocked the east-west shipping of the Yangtze River, which greatly threatened the political, economic and military security of the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao Gou was cruel and ordered one of the four generals of ZTE Zhang Jun led the army to conquer.

At this time, Zhang Jun's army went south to search the mountains and seas through the two routes of the Jin army, and cooperated with Han Shizhong to fight in Huang Tiandang. It had already greatly improved its combat effectiveness in countless battles to quell the civil strife in the south.Coupled with the internal strife among Zhang Yong, Cao Cheng and others, the war progressed very smoothly.

Zhang Yong couldn't resist, so he was recruited by Zhang Jun in August of the first year of Shaoxing.At that time, Zhang Bu still had 5 horses, more than 2000 war horses, and countless military resources.This is the case of internal strife in the army and the division of the army.

It is conceivable how prosperous and powerful the bandit army is at this moment.

The more this happened, the more excited Wang Shen was.As long as these thieves are cut off, their strength will be further improved.

The most wonderful thing is that at this moment, there has been friction between the bandit army and the bandit army.In order to grab territory, the Eighth Route Thieves fought countless battles with each other, big and small. Relying on the alliance's advocacy and using fairly good personal charm and tough methods, they finally suppressed the discord between the various armies.

Just a while ago, something funny happened to Li Hong's department stationed in Yumo Village.Because of the uneven distribution of spoils, several generals of Li's department were dissatisfied with their own leaders, so they ambushed Li Hong, intending to kill the leader and seize military power.

After Li Hong quelled the military chaos, he didn't dare to stay in the cottage anymore, and only took a group of troops who were absolutely loyal to him to defend him.At this moment, the morale of the army is unstable and low.

"This is the first battle of the westbound battle. We must show our prestige to let the thieves know how powerful our Sizhou army is. Last time when we defeated Yang Zaixing, although we shocked the bandits, we wouldn't feel pain if the knife didn't fall on us. Now the opportunity is just right. , then knock Li Hong's head on the mountain first."

Wang Shen felt that the opportunity to fight had arrived, no matter how stupid he was, he would know who to attack first among the eight bandits.

"General Wang Shen, our army still has a long way to go tomorrow. I heard that you are going to attack Xiaogan. The troops are getting ready and the Chinese army should go." surrounded by them.

The newly appointed Zhizhi envoy and magistrate of Xiangyang was Wang Shen's nominal boss.Originally, Wang Shen regarded him as a decoration, and he could handle it on weekdays.However, since he joined the Sizhou Army, Li Heng has been thinking all day long about wanting to seize Wang Shen's military power, and he has to intervene in military affairs, no matter how big or small.

In this Western Expedition, they followed directly, sitting in the middle of the army to dictate.

I heard from Chen Da that Li Heng had talked with Lu Can, Gu Lie, Wu Xianxian and other leading generals successively during the march in the past few days/What tricks are going on behind the scenes, even a fool can guess.It's nothing more than forming kindness, wooing them, and making them work for themselves.

It's a pity that he had a bad nose with these three people. Gu Lie was originally an old man in the Western Army, he liked to talk sarcasticly, and he was depressed for a long time before.It was Wang Shen who single-handedly promoted him from an ordinary capital to an army commander. This idiot in the Northwest would not give Li Heng any good looks. He only said a few words, and he satirized Li Yanping and the court enough: " What are the imperial court and officials? When the old and small Zhong were around, our Western Army fought well. Later, when you civil servants intervened, you were defeated again and again, and half of China was lost. , we soldiers don’t want to be fooled by you, and follow your blind orders to die.”

As for Wu Xianxian, he was originally a rascal, but when he saw Li Heng, he just had a playful smile on his face, and he used guns and sticks in his words, so people couldn't catch him, and Li Heng had nothing to do with him.

I thought that Lu Can, like himself, was a member of the famous religion, so he should be able to persuade him.However, this person is more difficult to deal with.

As soon as Lu Can spoke, he put on a very high posture, and Zi said that the sage said a lot.In the end, I taught Li Henglai a lesson, saying that when the Zhizhi envoy came to Jianghan, he did not know the enemy or himself, so he wanted to do something, rashly advanced, did not know how to unite the masses in what he said and did, and instead created discord in the army. To live up to the grace of the saints, I don't think so.Those who serve as generals...shepherds one side, should...

He is a man of letters, but he is not afraid of Li Heng.Li Heng was very embarrassed when he said that a table was on the line.

It is impossible to break through among these three people. As for Yue Yun, that is Wang Shen's future wife and brother; Du Shu is simply the leader of the Du Party; Their efforts were in vain.

At this time, the envoy Li Zhizhi was shocked to find that the Sizhou army was like a single piece of iron, unable to penetrate with needles or splash with water.A deep sense of powerlessness hit him, and he was in extreme depression for the past few days.

Naturally, Li Heng's petty actions could not hide from Wang Shen, and Wang Daosi was naturally extremely resentful towards this bastard.However, at least for a long period of time in the future, he still needs the banner of the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty to gather people's hearts and accumulate strength. On the surface, he still maintains a basic courtesy with the surname Li De.

But Li Heng no longer gave him a good face.

"Okay, Mr. Li, after I have eaten, I will set off now." Wang Shen spit out the gravel from the brown rice down the city wall: "Don't worry, the army is moving slowly, advancing like a wall, don't let Li Hong Take advantage of this opportunity."

The troops were short of food, so they only planted food around [-]:[-] am and [-]:[-] pm every day.If you march in a hurry, you may not be able to keep up with the physical strength of the soldiers, so you must allocate your physical strength reasonably.

"You don't need to be courteous, general. You don't need to call me Li Heng!" Li Heng said in a cold voice, "Our Sizhou army has just defeated Qichun, and the soldiers are tired. You think it is feasible to use troops against Anlu at this moment, and why not?" Do you have the certainty of victory? This is the only soldier the imperial court can use in Jianghan, if there is a mistake, can you bear it?"

Yes, in the entire Jianghan now, there is only the Sizhou Army, a field army capable of fighting.Although Jingzhou in the west is still in the hands of the Song Dynasty, the military and economic significance of that place is not great. Moreover, the city is full of temporary levies of countrymen and peasants. It disperses cleanly.

"Your Majesty said it well." Wang Shen smiled lightly, this Li Heng made no secret of his intentions as soon as he arrived at the Sizhou Army, and he had already made the conflict public.This time, Li Heng strongly opposed the Western Expedition. The reason he said was that the troops were too tired and the weather was hot.In fact, the surname Li is also aware of the lack of food in the army.

Wang Shen has always been unafraid to speculate on the civil servants of the Song Dynasty with the greatest malice. He suspected that Li Heng wanted to use hunger to weaken the morale of the army so that he could fish in troubled waters.

If the truth is as I guessed, it is unforgivable.

(End of this chapter)