In the Battle of Jiangcheng, the Northern Tang Dynasty completely wiped out the enemy forces in Baling.
Guo Ziyi's troops went south from Jiangcheng and successively captured Yuezhou, Tanzhou, Hengzhou, and Binzhou (today's Yueyang City, Hengyang City, Changsha City, and Binzhou City).
Li Guangbi also successfully marched on the eastern front and captured Hongzhou, Yuanzhou, Jizhou, Fuzhou and Xuanzhou (today's Nanchang City, Yichun City, Ji'an City, Fuzhou City, and Xuancheng City).
The remaining prefectures and counties along Jiangnan West Road opened their cities to surrender one after another in the face of the Northern Tang Army moving south. Occasionally, there were some cities that resisted stubbornly. In the face of firearms, they could not hold out for more than three days at the longest.
In just one and a half months, most of the prefectures and counties in the entire Jiangnan West Road were merged into the territory of the Northern Tang Dynasty.
The armies under Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi began to march eastward, and finally successfully joined forces in the Zhanghe River area south of Wuhu.
After a year, Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi finally met again.
For a moment, both of them were filled with emotion.
Guo Ziyi ordered his bodyguard to make a pot of good tea, and he and Li Guangbi drank tea while talking.
Guo Ziyi: "You and I haven't been back to Liangcheng for a long time. I wonder how the court is doing now?"
Li Guangbi took a sip of tea soup and said, "I heard a lot of news about officials from the north who came to report on their duties in the army. The imperial court planned to rebuild the Anbei Protectorate in Mobei. The prince was granted the title of envoy, and the governor of Jizhou, Zhou Ze, was granted the title of envoy.
Named deputy envoy."
Guo Ziyi: "I have also heard about this. Your Majesty sent the prince to Mobei in order to train him. This is a good thing."
Li Guangbi: "Your Majesty mobilized elite troops from Anxi, Hexi, and Longyou to form a 10,000-strong dragon cavalry army to assist Shuofang's army in going north to attack the Huihe Golden Tent. Hundreds of large merchant houses in the country formed an alliance to accompany the army in the northern expedition."
Hearing the first half of the sentence, Guo Ziyi nodded slightly. After hearing the second half, Guo Ziyi frowned and asked: "When the army is fighting, why are the merchants going to join in the fun?"
Li Guangbi drank the tea in one gulp: "The national treasury has bottomed out."
Guo Ziyi was startled, then thought about it carefully, and sighed: "We have been fighting in the past few years, military expenditures have been huge, and the national treasury has bottomed out. Thinking about it this way, it is not surprising."
Li Guangbi: "For those domestic merchant alliances, His Majesty has specially granted special privileges, allowing them to rent land, captives, livestock, materials and other trophies with the army, and then pay gold and silver currency to the imperial court based on the corresponding value of the items to replenish the national treasury."
Guo Ziyi: "This method is not bad for emergency use. It's just a group of businessmen following the army, which always sounds a bit weird."
Li Guangbi: "A few months ago, the Shuofang Army and the Dragon Cavalry Army captured the Uighur Golden Tent. The Uighur Khan moved to another place and fled towards the Chisuo River with his remaining troops. Mobei was almost completely cleared."
Hearing this, Guo Ziyi couldn't help shouting "Hello", and then said: "If we were not in the army, you and I should have a drink today for this great victory in Mobei!"
After a pause, Guo Ziyi said again: "Your Majesty was really discerning back then. The leader of the small team who was under the protection of the royal capital is now not only not afraid at all in front of the 100,000 Uighur cavalry, but also fought again and again.
Victory, that young man named Sun Aying is really amazing."
Li Guangbi: "The officials in the Privy Council have always jokingly called Sun Duhu the 'life-sacrifice man'. When fighting the enemy, Sun Duhu rushed to the front line, and several times, he led his troops deep behind the enemy's rear and carried out long-distance attacks. He was indeed a great leader.
A general who is good at fighting and courageous."
Guo Ziyi looked at Li Guangbi: "Let's not talk about Sun Aying. I heard that you have achieved several great victories in Xunyang and other places in the past few years?"
Speaking of the war, Li Guangbi smiled bitterly: "When I faced off against Shi Siming, the fellow was greedy for life and feared death, but he also loved taking advantage of small profits. I seized on this weakness and used tricks to lure him into the trap several times, and then defeated him. After the fight, Shi Siming
They also knew that they would not get any benefits from me, so they simply retreated to Poyang (today's Boyang County), and later fled to Xinchang (today's Jingdezhen). The Puppet Tang Dynasty could only summon Zhang Xun to replace Shi Siming's defense line."
Guo Ziyi: "Zhang Xun? Is that Deng Guogong who killed the old, weak, women and children in Juyang City and used them to wrap the bellies of the soldiers?"
Li Guangbi nodded and said: "After Zhang Xun arrived, he led his army to defend Raozhou City. He reinforced the city wall with earth and stone, and installed hidden railings in the moat. He completely pretended to be defending the city. I used tricks several times.
I wanted to lure him out of the city, but I didn't expect that this person was indifferent and ignored everything else."
Guo Ziyi: "Bombarding the city wall with artillery and then burying gunpowder barrels under the city wall is ineffective?"
Li Guangbi: "Zhang Xun demolished all the houses in the city and transported all the earth, stone and wood to the city gate. He first blocked the city gate, and then used piles of materials to support the city wall. Except for large long cannons, it was difficult for other firearms to cause damage to the city.
As for burying gunpowder barrels, Raozhou City is different from other prefectures and counties. Where the city is built, there are springs underground with constant running water. As long as groundwater is diverted around the city wall and the walls are wetted to form a moat, it is difficult for gunpowder to work."
Guo Ziyi: "In this way, Zhang Xun and Na Laiyi are somewhat similar. They are both good people."
Li Guangbi: "Zhang Xun was not only good at defense, he also marched and fought without any taboos, and often committed unjust acts."
Guo Ziyi: "How do you say this?"
Li Guangbi: "I will tell you one thing, and the commander will know it. After our army captured Xunyang, it marched south. Duchang County knew that it was outnumbered, so it opened the city and surrendered. The people in the city voluntarily left the puppet dynasty and joined the Tang Dynasty as people.
Later, our army attacked Pengze eastward, and Zhang Xun ordered his men to attack Duchang, and captured all the people who surrendered to our army and took them to the front line."
Guo Ziyi frowned and said, "What did he do?"
Li Guangbi: "Our army's forward general Bai Xiaode made a surprise attack on Raozhou City. When the troops approached the city, the enemy was caught off guard, and Bai Xiaode took the advantage. Unexpectedly, Zhang Xun ordered the captured Duchang people to be put on the city wall and made to stand on the female wall.
The rear serves as a shield. Bai Xiaode couldn't bear to kill the people and delayed the opportunity to fight, causing the first battle to fail and the soldiers to suffer heavy casualties."
Guo Ziyi: "What happened next?"
Li Guangbi: "Pugu Huai'en led the left and right armies, and then rushed to the city. After hearing the cause and effect of the incident, he dismissed Bai Xiaode from his post on the spot and personally led the army to attack the city."
As for the final outcome of the people of Duchang, Guo Ziyi did not ask any more questions.
War is not a child's play. It's always either you die or I live.
At this time, a report came from outside the door, saying that a man came to the camp gate and wanted to see General Li Guangbi.
Li Guangbi asked: "Who did the visitor say he was?"
The man outside the door announced: "The person who came here said that his master is Shi Chaoyi, the general of the hospital in Beiya, Jiankang."
Li Guangbi was stunned: "Shi Chaoyi?"
Guo Ziyi was quite surprised: "Isn't Shi Chaoyi the son of Shi Siming?"
Li Guangbi thought for a moment and said, "Let him come over."
Not long after, a middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance who would not stand out in the crowd walked into the tent, bowed and handed a letter to Li Guangbi.
Li Guangbi opened the letter, and his expression became weirder the more he read it.
Seeing this, Guo Ziyi asked: "What's wrong?"
Li Guangbi handed the letter to Guo Ziyi and said, "Shi Chaoyi wants to surrender."