In September in Tongbai Mountain, it was still the late autumn season when the sky was high and the air was crisp, but on Linfu Road, the wind was already blowing and the body was chilling.
The strong wind stirred up smoke and dust all over the sky, and the branches and leaves of the sparse trees on the hills and plateaus began to wither.
The sky is gloomy and hazy, but the Yellow River between the long gorges is calm and deep. The waves are far less turbulent than the section from Tongguan to the east to Hulao, like a mythical beast that has been dormant for thousands of years.
Xu Huaile stopped in front of the ferry, took off his thin felt hood, revealing his handsome and thin face, and looked at the Yellow River and Fugu City on the other side.
The Yellow River flows slowly from west to east from the southern foothills of Yinshan Mountain. It is blocked by the mountains at the western foothills of Xishan Mountain and turns southward. After more than 1,200 miles, it is blocked by the Qinling Mountains and turns eastward again.
It is this 1,200-mile Yellow River waterway that splits the land of Shanxi and Shaanxi into two halves.
Among the more than a thousand miles of Yellow River waterway from north to south, the section from the mouth of the Hun River to the south of the mouth of the Baishui River is about three hundred miles, with Linfu Road on both sides.
Linfu Road belonged to Linzhou during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and only Xinqin and Yincheng counties were established. After the establishment of the Dayue Dynasty, the land on the east bank was separated and Fugu County was newly established. Later, Fugu County was promoted to Fuzhou.
On the west bank of the Yellow River in Xuhuailima, Fuzhou City (Fugu County) was built on the western slope of Shiliang Mountain on the opposite bank.
The city was built according to the mountains, with the mountains blocking the river. It was only more than 300 steps deep from north to south and less than 700 steps wide from east to west, and the whole city was shaped like a boot.
Compared with Kelan and other cities, Fuzhou City is small, only comparable to Yangkou Village and Guangwu Village. However, the city has a total of six large and small gates. There are urns on the Great South Gate and Xiaoxi Gate.
It has a city tower and is covered with bricks and stones. It was a standard military fortress at that time.
Although Fuzhou only controls Fugu County, it borders Dangxiang to the northwest and Khitan to the northeast. It has always been a battleground for military strategists. In addition to Fuzhou City and the military fortress Piantou Village in the north, there are seven buildings built in the territory based on the dangerous terrain.
A military fortress.
"Tell me, when we cross the river with King Jing's letter, how will Gu Jiqian feel when he sees us?" Xu Huai looked at Wang Ju, Xu Wuqi, Xu Xin'an, Fan Zongqi, Wang Jun, Wang Zhang, and Shi beside him.
Hu, Niu and others asked calmly.
"Probably it won't be too pleasant!" Xu Wuqi laughed.
Xu Huai waited for Wang Ju in Puban, and after Xu Wuqi led the first group of troops to arrive disguised as a caravan, he did not send anyone to inform Fuzhou first, but directly continued to cross the Yellow River in the name of a caravan and arrived from Yan
Zhouzhou and other places took the road to go north.
Yanzhou and Yanzhou are located in the hinterland of the Loess Plateau. The mountains and valleys are criss-crossed, making it difficult for vehicles and horses to travel. Hundreds of people lead thousands of camels and horses on the mountain roads, plateaus and valleys, and the camels carry heavy goods.
It took a month to reach the ancient crossing of the Yellow River opposite Fuzhou City.
It is a caravan of Lifengtang. It is just the driver of the caravan, and the guards are all replaced by Chushan elites. However, the more than 2,000 mules and horses and more than 4,000 bundles of goods transported by camels are real.
On the one hand, it is difficult to imagine that the Chihu people did not send spies to Shaanxi to keep an eye on the movements of the Western armies. On the other hand, Fuzhou is too poor and has to bear extremely heavy military defense tasks. It also has to accommodate the remnants of the Khitan tribe to move into Lin.
Prefecture, the northern part of Fuzhou is temporarily settled, and all kinds of materials are extremely scarce.
Gu Jiqian, the general manager of the Linfu Road Military and Horse Capital, sent letters to Zheng Huaizhong and King Jing many times, hoping to transfer more supplies such as grain, armor, swords and bows from the hinterland of Guanzhong and Luoyang.
Because in the past eight or nine months, Mr. Gu
, had an ambiguous attitude towards the auxiliary troops of Cao Shixiong's tribe who occupied Lanzhou. The imperial court repeatedly urged him to use troops against Lanzhou and Shuozhou to contain the flanks, but received no response.
Gu's ambiguity was not beyond Xu Huai's expectation.
Linfu Road is said to enjoy the treatment of a road-level administrative area. Gu Jiqian, the military commander, has the same status as the economic and strategic pacification envoy. However, Linfu Road actually only governs three counties, and the combined population is not even new.
In Chushan County, the Gu family, as the local emperor of Linfu Road, had little actual control.
As the descendants of the Dangxiang people, the Gu family has lived and multiplied in this land for hundreds of years, and it is difficult for the people to leave this land.
Although the Gu family has defended this land for Dai Viet for more than a hundred years and there has been no betrayal, the problem is that for the past hundred years or so, Dai Viet has been competing with the Khitan and Party people in the northwest, and it can basically be regarded as being in a
Advantage.
The Gu family had a feud with the Dangxiang royal family at that time, and anyone with a bit of long-term political vision would not be able to do it again.
The situation is completely different now, especially when the Chihu people's first southern invasion exposed Dai Viet's pants. Is Gu still willing to continue to be tied to the broken ship of Dai Viet?
Xu Huai did not believe that Gu would be loyal to Vietnam.
Even though Gu Jiqian's eldest son Gu Congzheng led more than a thousand Fuzhou disciples to join the Gyeonggi Forbidden Army to participate in the defense of Bianliang, Xu Huai did not believe that when the Chihu soldiers surrounded Fuzhou City, the Gu family would choose to die together with Fuzhou City.
Of course, Xu Huai did not believe that the Gu family had secretly surrendered to the Chihu people at this time.
If they have surrendered, there is no need for them to stand still. The Chihu People's Congress can order the Gu family to use troops in the direction of Yanzhou and Yanzhou to accelerate the destruction of the foundation of Dai Viet. Why is there any need to cover up?
Xu Huaizheng suspected that the Gu family had an ambiguous attitude towards the Chihu people, so he suggested to King Jing and Zheng Huaizhong not to inform Fuzhou in advance of the plan to raid Taiyuan.
Otherwise, the Gu family pretended to have accidentally leaked the confidential information. They had no way to restrain the Gu family and could only interrupt the plan to raid Taiyuan.
Xu Huai came without warning, even if Gu didn't cooperate, he had to cooperate!
Of course, they shouldn't expect Mr. Gu to be happy about their arrival.
Linfu Road is located in Luliang Mountain and west of Guanxun Mountain. As part of the Shanxi-Shaanxi Loess Plateau, the territory is criss-crossed by mountains and valleys, and traffic is blocked.
This determines that the Chihu people will not easily use troops against Fuzhou before they gain an absolute advantage in Hedong.
However, the Fuzhou side has long been in turmoil. Places such as Shengjun Fort are busy with horses and soldiers. However, since the Yellow River Ferry on the west side of Fuzhou City is located in the hinterland, and to the west is the hinterland of Guanshan and Shaanxi, the security has not yet been tightened.
Xu Huai and the others had a complete set of customs and defense documents, and were entrusted by King Jing to transport grain, fodder, weapons and other supplies. Of course, they crossed the Yellow River smoothly. After arriving at Fuzhou City, the General Manager of the Military and Horse Capital sent several
The officials came to contact them and led them all the way into the city, preparing to rush directly to the warehouse to inspect the goods.
When the soldiers and civilians of Fuzhou saw such a huge cavalry entering the city and saw the thousands of bundles of goods carried by camels, they were all in high spirits.
Fuzhou has a vast territory, sparsely populated areas, barren land, and extremely heavy military defense tasks. In the past, it relied on the transportation of large amounts of grain and fodder from the direction of Taiyuan for insufficient supplies. However, since the Xuanwu Army and the Xiaosheng Army were destroyed in Yunzhou last year, it has been nearly a year.
There is no time to replenish new supplies.
In the past year, Fuzhou not only expanded its military equipment, but also tens of thousands of soldiers from the Xuanwu Army, Xiaosheng Army, Tianxiong Army, and thousands of Tongbai Mountain soldiers retreated into Fuzhou and stayed in Fuzhou.
It took more than a month to go south, which also intensified the consumption of Fuzhou's accumulated supplies.
The Japanese soldiers haven't invaded yet, but the situation in Fuzhou has become increasingly difficult.
Now that large quantities of materials are being transported through the customs and Shaanxi border, there is finally no need to tighten the belt anymore. Why are people unhappy?
After arriving at the mansion, Xu Huaicai revealed his identity to the officials he contacted and asked to see Gu Jiqian secretly.
…………
…………
Xu Huai and his uncle Wang Ju first went to the Mansion of the Military and Horse Capital to meet Gu Jiqian.
Gu Jiqian was sitting high in the hall, and there were several important people on the left and right of the Gu family. Xu Huai entered the hall and bowed, and without saying anything about withdrawing, he directly presented the secret letters from King Jing Zhao Tuan and Hedong's envoy Zheng Huaizhong, and said:
"Gu Shijun, we haven't seen each other for several months. I didn't expect that when the wind blows again, we can come to Fuzhou to see each other again! This time I bring you this congratulatory gift. I hope to satisfy Gu Shijun!"
The city of Fuzhou is small and under the absolute control of the Gu family. The main official positions in the city are held by the children of the Gu family. As long as Fuzhou raises the alert level to the highest level immediately, even if the Chihu people have spies in Fuzhou city,
He couldn't leave the city either.
And if Gu Jiqian intentionally leaked the matter, it would be useless to retreat.
Gu Jiqian took the secret letter with a gloomy expression, motioned Xu Huai to sit aside for a while, and waited for tea to be served. He patiently read the letter first.
Although Xu Huai was still the magistrate of Chushan County and the capital of the Tianxiong Army was Yuhou, for more than a year he first raided Lanzhou, and then rushed to the aid of Gongxian with King Jing, restraining the captive troops to the east of Yanshi, and then crossed the river with King Jing to raid
In Taiyue Mountain, he beheaded more than 5,000 people and made outstanding military achievements.
Not to mention the performance of Xu Huai's Tongbai soldiers during the first and second northern expeditions against Yan. It can be said that he was one of the few shining stars in the darkness of Dai Viet.
Therefore, it was impossible for Gu Jiqian to underestimate Xu Huai at this time.
Furthermore, although Gu Jiqian's status was high, he only had seven or eight thousand troops in the prefecture. When the imperial court was in danger and local forces were increasingly thinking about self-preservation, how much better was the Gu family than Chushan?
However, after Gu Jiqian read the secret letter, he naturally felt unhappy and his face became more and more gloomy.
Xu Huai led hundreds of elite troops disguised as mules and horses, starting from Caizhou, passing through Luoyang, entering Guanshan, and finally arriving at Fuzhou. It had been at least a month since the plan to raid Taiyuan was launched.
Would Gu Jiqian be happy if he informed himself face to face?
Gu Jiqian was the commander-in-chief of the military and horse capital at the same level as the economic and strategic pacification envoy. Although he was controlled by the Hedong Zhizhi envoy, it was not until this time that the whole plan was known until Xu Huai led hundreds of elites into Fuzhou City.
What's going on?
Doesn't this represent the imperial court, Prince Jing and Zheng Huaizhong's suspicion of him?
Of course, Gu Jiqian had no way to lose his temper with Xu Huai. The whole matter was apparently a decision made by King Jing Zhao Tuan and Hedong Zhizhi envoy Zheng Huaizhong, and Xu Huai was just the executor.
In the secret letter, King Zhao Tuan of Jing and Zheng Huaizhong, the envoy of Hedong, both requested Fuzhou to do everything possible to cooperate with Xu Huai.
Xu Huai just drank tea calmly, waiting for Gu Jiqian's statement...
