Song Dynasty

Chapter 214 Westward Journey ([-])

After passing Huangpi, it is considered to have entered the real Great Plains, with thousands of miles of fertile fields and flat terrain, which is conducive to large corps operations.Both the enemy and the enemy have cavalry. These days, scouts from both sides come and go, and I don’t know how many times they have exchanged hands.The skirmishes continued one after another, non-stop, and the battlefield was transparent to each other.The so-called conspiracy is useless, it is purely a contest of strength.

"If I were Zhang Yong, this battle would be easy to fight." Wang Shen put the rice in the bowl into his mouth in two mouthfuls, and then handed the bowl to Feng Changqing, belching full, and continued: "As far as I know, the Jianghan area has not experienced war for hundreds of years. The city walls of Xiaogan, Yunmeng, Hanchuan, Yingcheng, Yingshan, and even Anlu, where the state capital is located, are all low and low. The city defenses are purely for decoration. At this time, when the Sizhou army came over, he should be the first to harvest the newly ripened wheat, cut down all the rice that had just eared, fortified the walls and cleared the fields, abandoned the city, and guarded all strategic points, making it difficult for the Sizhou army to continue. After a delay of one or two months, the Sizhou army starved to death. At that time, I, Mr. Wang, would not be able to stay in Jianghan any longer, so I had to lead the army to retreat, abandoning Qi and Huang and crossing the river to Jiangnan West Road to survive. However, although the plan is good, it must be carried out by the leaders of the various families."

"First of all, the reason why the bandits came to Jianghan was that the Jurchen and the court officers and soldiers in Huaixi repeatedly fought back and forth, and the second was that there was a severe drought in Huaixi, which made it impossible to feed so many soldiers and horses. After finally arriving in this land of fish and rice, seeing that the rice was about to mature, How can you be willing to control this year's harvest regardless of the harvest, come with me and kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred. No, kill one thousand enemies and lose ten thousand." Wang Shen laughed: "The thieves are all out of profit. Get together, if there is no food to eat, it will naturally break up because of profit."

"For thieves, this is a paradise on earth. How can they throw away the fat in their hands? A while ago, considering living in the city to defend the emptiness, Zhang used a large army to garrison the Sanlong River, Cao Cheng's troops were stationed in the Yingcheng District, and Li Hong was stationed in the Yucheng District. Moshan takes advantage of the location. You can’t enjoy the colorful world in the city, and all the troops have complaints. This time Li Hong led his confidants into Xiaogan, not only because of internal strife, but also to appease the hearts of the troops.”

"Besides, although the bandit army regards Zhang Yong as the leader, everyone did not put their mouths on Zhang Yong's stove to eat. No one took his so-called leader's order seriously."

"The army is not well-aligned, and the spin is still killing each other. I can be sure that once our army fights with Li Hong, I am afraid that there will not be a so-called 'rebel army' coming to help. Some people will even make trouble and annex his team. "

"The terrain here is flat. Once a battle is fought, cavalry is the key to the outcome of a battle. Jianghan does not produce horses, and the rebel army was trained by the left-behind Si Zong Rulin in Tokyo. They use the tactics of the Western Army. Naturally I don’t understand cavalry. I have been tested on the battlefield, so what can Li Hong use to resist my Sizhou army’s rolling cavalry?”

Wang Shen's voice became more sonorous and powerful: "Yes, there are [-] bandits in the bandit army, but they seem to be in harmony with each other. I will eat a share of him today, and occupy his city tomorrow. I will do it piecemeal and keep bleeding him. Wait until they When you come to your senses and want to fight with me, you don’t have much power at hand. Just one month can make the bandits lose their souls and become terrified.”

Li Heng snorted coldly: "The use of troops against Anlu this time is purely aggressive. Our army has just regained Qichun, and the autumn harvest is just around the corner. We should have rested and recuperated until the autumn grain is stored in the warehouse. Now the whole army is advancing, we must guard against Huangzhou, Qichun Chun is fundamentally wrong. At that time, of course we have nowhere to go, and the imperial court’s plan to pacify Jianghan will be ruined, so how should I explain to the officials and the imperial court.”

Hearing this, Wang Shen sneered in his heart: "Recuperate and recuperate? The area under my jurisdiction is thousands of miles away, and there are no people in ten. How can I rest? As for the need to guard against fundamental mistakes, the first thing I want to guard against is you, Li Yanping."

Wang Shen didn't take this guy seriously!

In this damn era, with a bastard boss like Zhao Laojiu, no matter how loyal you are to him, no matter how capable you are, you can't escape to take a trip to the Storm Pavilion in the end.Even a confidant like Han Shizhong, who has made great contributions in protecting him, ended up letting go of his military power and not caring about world affairs. He even cried bitterly in front of Zhao Gou to save his life, but since then he can only retreat to Linquan sadly, not caring about world affairs.

Wang Shen is very clear about the virtues of the court and the emperor, but he doesn't have the slightest so-called "loyalty" in his heart. It's just that his current strength is too weak, and he is caught between Jurchen, the court and various rogues. Among the major powers, the banner of the small imperial court of the Southern Song Dynasty was still needed.

This Western Expedition is a great crisis for him, but also a great opportunity.

In fact, after coming to Huangzhou, he started to plan the entire Jianghan Plain.Many times I couldn't help raising troops westward and southward to take this rich land into my pocket.But no, at that time De'an, Ezhou, Fuzhou, and Yuezhou were all in the hands of the imperial court and under the jurisdiction of local officials. If they suddenly sent troops, it would be a real rebellion.With his strength, it is impossible to resist the court officers and soldiers who will continue to pour in in the future.At the same time, in the north, he had to face the main forces of Jurchen and Puppet Qi.

So, he could only endure it.

But this time is different.After Zhang Yong, Cao Cheng and others came to Jianghan, they attacked the city and plundered the land and expelled the officials of the Southern Song Dynasty.As long as he repelled the bandit army, he could have a piece of raw rice and cook it, and occupy this vast land in a legitimate way.Of course, Du Chong will have to work hard in the court at that time.

Naturally, he would not talk about this kind of thinking with others.

Wang Shen smiled: "My lord, don't worry, our army will win this battle. Wang Shen can be regarded as a man who has survived a hundred battles, and he has fought many battles. In every battle, I still know what the odds of winning are."

It was too rude to say this, Li Heng turned pale and walked away.

He planned to have another bowl of rice, but was interrupted by Li Yanping, and Wang Shen lost his appetite.Just standing under the bright sun and looking ahead with empty eyes, the wind blows across the plain.At the end of the green plain is a line of yellow, which is ripe wheat.That is the food that I need most, and it is as expensive as gold.

Under Gao Tianyun, teams of Sizhou soldiers are lining up.No one spoke, and gradually gathered into a phalanx.A murderous spirit filled the wilderness, like a fierce tiger.

How can such rivers and mountains not make people fascinated and high-spirited?

Standing on a good opportunity, seeing that the time was about the same, soldiers came to report as soon as they went down the city wall, saying that the governor of Huangzhou, Du Shu and Du Yuezhi, accompanied the rear soldiers of the escort team and sent two carts of medicinal materials for cooling down.

Wang Shen laughed: "This Du Yuezhi is a careful person." After laughing, his heart was moved, and he had an idea: "Call Du Tongpan and so on, I want to talk to him."

(End of this chapter)