(Second update, arrived as promised, although I really wanted to sleep when I wrote it)
It was drizzling in the early morning, and the wet car curtains hung heavily. Song Jia sat in the darkened car, listening to the soft sound of the car rutting over the road paved with pebbles.
Wanting to lift the curtain to take a look at the man riding a horse beside her, but afraid that her thoughts would be revealed to the little goblin sitting opposite, Song Jia sighed quietly, leaning against the car wall, her cheek pressed against the cool siding---
-This is an exquisite and luxurious carriage, made of wood with a delicate texture, like human skin, and a faint fragrance.
The carriage stopped, and Song Jia raised the curtains and looked outside before arriving at the ferry. There were two ships approaching in the distance. Seeing Lin Fu looking over there, Song Jia thought to herself: Are you waiting for someone to go to Hecheng with you?
?Waiting for the boat to dock, an old man with white hair and a bright head was brought ashore with iron handcuffs on his hands and walked towards this side.
When he saw the old man's face clearly, Song Jiaduan was shocked. What kind of old man was he? It was Du Rong who was killed by Lin Fu at Meixi Lake last year! Lin Fu didn't kill him, but killed him.
He was imprisoned, no wonder his body was not found afterwards.
Du Rong is not yet over fifty. When we met in Jiangning last year, he was still full of black hair. Unexpectedly, he had been imprisoned in Xisha Island for a year by Lin Fu, and his temples were already covered with frost and snow.
"Du Rong pays homage to the young lady?"
When Song Jia saw Du Rong coming over to salute, there was no strange color on his face. Through the car window, Song Jia asked in surprise: "Does Master Du know that I am detained in Chongzhou?"
"Don't say it so harshly. When will I force you to stay?" Lin Fu said with a smile while riding on horseback.
Song Jia raised her head and glanced at Lin Fu, but felt that the look in her eyes was ambiguous and that it was inappropriate in Du Rong's eyes. She lowered her head and did not look at Lin Fu, but she felt as if she and Du Rong had met an old friend after a disaster.
"Du Rong is on Xisha Island, and Inspector Lin Du is generous and can read and write. He can know a little bit about what is happening outside," Du Rong said with a bitter smile. "Inspector Lin Du also promised that no matter what happens in the future war with Jin'an,
, after ten or eight years, Du Rong will be free, and he will be able to be a lonely crane in the clouds."
Song Jia let Du Rong, who was the only one in charge of the She family, say this, and felt emotional. She looked at Lin Fu and said, "I can understand that you are using me to humiliate the She family. Since the Du family has disappeared from the world for many years, why do you bother to treat him again?"
Drag it in?"
"It's none of Inspector Lin Du's business," Du Rong shook his head and said, "It was me and Inspector Lin Du who took the initiative to go to Hecheng."
Song Jia was slightly startled. It didn't look like Du Rong had defected to Lin Fu, so how could he help him go to Hecheng to surrender?
At this time, a fast horse galloped from the west, causing mud and water to splash, and handed an official letter into Lin Fu's hand.
Song Jia could openly look at Lin Fu's stern profile, with rain smeared on his face and wet and messy hair hanging out of his pocket. His brows were slightly furrowed, and he had a calm demeanor, but he didn't expect anything urgent to happen.
Send a quick cavalry to catch up and report.
"She Wenzhuang is a good method," Lin Fu handed the letter to Song Jia through the window and said, "The She family divided their troops in eastern Zhejiang to attack Xianxia Ridge. Ten years ago, the She family was blocked by Xianxia Pass and could not leave Eastern Fujian.
Entering the west of Zhejiang, today we first captured the east of Zhejiang, and detoured to the west of Zhejiang to capture Xianxia Pass. This can be regarded as a long-cherished wish of many years - I think there will be a surprise army to attack Shangguan..."
Eastern Fujian is separated from the Central Plains by high mountains and ridges. In addition to sea detours, you must take the Xianxia Mountains when entering western Zhejiang, and you must take the Shanguan Road when entering Jiangxi.
The only land route from the Central Plains to East Fujian.
When the eight surnames entered Fujian, they took two roads: Shanguan Pass and Xianxia Pass. They went down the Minjiang River, passed through Shaowu, Jian'an (now Nanping City) and then to Jin'an (now Fuzhou City), which were the earliest developed areas in Eastern Fujian.
This area is also the most developed area in East Fujian today.
The She family raised the flag of rebellion and marched up the Min River. They occupied Jian'an and Shaowu first and blocked it at Xianxia Pass. Then Li Zhuo rose up at Shangguan. After ten years of rebellion, no Fujian soldiers could leave the Fujian territory.
The She family surrendered and returned to Jin'an to break the soil and become a marquis.
In order to suppress the She family, the imperial court made Jian'an Prefecture in the upper reaches of the Min River the capital of East Fujian, and established an elite force, led by the Admiral Yu Wangao of East Fujian, known as the Jian'an Army in the world. It also established a town in Shaowu, north of Jian'an, with Lu Jingyan as its general.
, guarding Shanguan and Xianxiaguan on the north and northeast sides of Shaowu, known as Shaowu Army in the world.
Last winter, Yue Lengqiu mobilized Shao Wu's army to go north to King Qin. Lu Jingyan died in the battle. Half of Shao Wu's army of ten thousand generals were won over by Yue Lengqiu and became Yue Lengqiu's direct descendants. The remaining half were almost killed in the battle, leaving only a few hundred remnants.
The army was organized into the Jiangdong Left Army, leaving only the Jian'an Army under the command of Yu Wangao in East Fujian to intimidate the She family.
The She family's war in eastern Zhejiang has not yet been decided, so they are not in a hurry to seek the Hangjiahu area, and instead send out surprise troops to attack Xianxia Pass in western Zhejiang (Lin Fu guessed that there must be a surprise army to capture Shangguan), not for the long-cherished wish, but for
It was to cut off the connection between the Jian'an Army led by Yu Wangao and Jiangxi and western Zhejiang, and trap it in the hinterland of Eastern Fujian.
The land of Jian'an Prefecture is mountainous, and only the alluvial plains in the middle reaches of the Min River can be turned into fertile farmland. Dingkou, a prefecture with seven counties, is not even as good as one county in Chongzhou, and the fertile farmland and fertile soil are not as good as one county in Chongzhou. After many years of war, the people's livelihood has deteriorated.
The 20,000 elite troops stationed in Jian'an were all brought overland from Jiangxi and western Zhejiang with their food and grass supplies. Once Shan Pass and Xianxia Pass were sealed, and the food source of Yu Wangao's Jian'an army was cut off, they would be in danger, and they could not be expected to respond.
The She family of Jin'an directly used troops to relieve the pressure in eastern Zhejiang.
Of course, if western Zhejiang, Jiangdong or Jiangxi can mobilize elite troops and attack them simultaneously with Yu Wangao on the inside, and recapture Xianxia Pass and Shanshan, the crisis faced by the Jian'an Army will naturally be eliminated - the key is Jiangxi,
Will Jiangdong or Jiangxi mobilize their elite troops in time?
Lin Fu became more and more certain that Jinan Mansion, which had not received any news for three days, had fallen into chaos. It was just that the communication channels were blocked and no definite news had been transmitted for a while.
The situation is becoming more and more critical. Once Yu Wangao fails to withstand the pressure and sees that he cannot recapture Shangguan and Xianxiaguan, and abandons Jian'an and evacuates to the Quanzhang area in the south, the She family can connect northern Fujian and southern Zhejiang into one.
At this time, the thoughts and layout of the She family were also revealed to the world.
Jin'an, the place where Jian'an rarely raised troops, had been fighting for ten years, and the people's livelihood had deteriorated, and they no longer had the strength to fight anymore.
Although the Zhejiang and Zhejiang regions also have a small-field pattern of "seven mountains, one water and two fields", these two fields are concentrated in Minghui, Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou.
"Hangjiahu" refers to Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou, and "Minghui" refers to Mingzhou Prefecture (Ningbo) and Kuaiji Prefecture (Shaoxing) on the south bank of the Qianjiang River. They are separated by the Qianjiang River. They are both rare and fertile land of fish and rice in the southeast.
Commerce, trade and workshops are also very developed.
Now that the She family has captured Mingzhou and Kuaiji, and has integrated northern Fujian and southern Zhejiang, it will be enough for the She family to recruit another hundred thousand elites to drink from the Ma Qian River and have a glimpse of the Central Plains.
Song Jia leaned against the car window, read the letter carefully, sighed quietly, and said: "The Song family is determined to protect themselves, but they can't. Will you blame Song Bo?"
"You deserve to be punished for killing the common people because of the pirates," Lin Fu said with a smile. "It doesn't matter if we meet on the battlefield. Whoever dies will be killed by the sword. What's there to complain about? Master Du, what do you think?"
Du Rong smiled bitterly and did not answer Lin Fu's question.
If Yu Wangao really forces the She family to leave Jian'an and flee south, the eight surnames of Eastern Fujian, including the Song family, will follow the She family and raise the flag of rebellion again. Otherwise, the Ao family in Jiaocheng will be slaughtered.
It's a precedent.
Song Jia looked back and saw that in addition to the cavalry, there was a long formation of infantry in the rear. She knew that Lin Fu could not allow the situation in Chongzhou to be delayed any longer. The people trapped in Hecheng would not surrender, and Lin Fu had no intention of doing more water grinding work.
Yes, a strong attack is inevitable.
Xiaoman, however, was quite excited and propped his head up to watch the majestic march of the army.
***********
Despite the cold rain in early winter, the Jiangdong Left Army still maintained a relatively fast speed on the highway in Chongzhou, and arrived at Hecheng before dark to enter the camp for repairs.
When Lin Fu entered the Hecheng camp, he first met Zhang Yan, the salt and iron envoy who had been supervising the army on the north bank for more than a month, and Mao Wenjing, the cavalry captain of the salt army. From Zhang Yan, he learned about the sudden civil unrest at the Yellow River embankment.
Three hundred thousand civilians rebelled. Headed by Ge Ping and supported by Chen Hansan's troops, they defeated the Pingji town army in charge of repairing the river, killed the governor-general, Quan Zhi, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Chen Zhongnian, the official of Jinan Prefecture.
.The rebels captured Linqing and Jinan on the 23rd.
Due to the lack of communication, it took three days to get the news to the south.
The rebel leader Ge Ping proclaimed himself Tianyi Marshal in Jinan, and made the big bandit Chen Hansan the Tianyi Left Guard Army. The 300,000 Yellow River rebels called themselves Tianyi Army.
Ge Ping took control of Jinan and led the Tianyi Central Army. He claimed that he would attack Yanjing directly north and overthrow the imperial court. Chen Hansan, who proclaimed himself the Tianyi Left Guard Army, led his headquarters to threaten the large number of people who were repairing the river and marched westward to Liaocheng in order to attack the empty defense.
Puyang, Hebi...
Lin Fu was distraught, exchanged brief greetings with Zhang Yan, and then returned to the south bank camp. With the current situation, he could only live in Chongzhou and was unable to take care of the overall situation of the world.
In the past month, the Jiangdong Left Army has requisitioned civilians, and the prisoners serving their sentences have been continuously reinforcing trench walls and fortifications outside the Hecheng Fortress. The normal number of workers has remained at more than 3,000.
Now, the trench wall has been built more than one foot high and twelve feet thick. Cao Ziang even ordered people to dig a brick kiln on the south bank and began to lay green bricks on the outside of the trench wall. Four prismatic forts were embedded in the four corners of the trench wall to strengthen it.
In addition to the overall structure of the trench wall, a small number of elite troops were also stationed to supplement the local braves, which completely surrounded the two thousand bandits in the Hecheng Fortress on the inner side.
Lin Fu worked so hard and invested so much that after the invaders surrendered, he directly used the trench wall as the outer wall of He City, expanded the size of He City into a large city with a circumference of 2,600 steps, and became the leader of the Jiangdong Left Army in addition to Chongzhou.
The greatest foundation outside.
"Everyone, let's get ready," Lin Fu said, "Send the arrows and give them one more day. If they don't surrender tomorrow, they won't be allowed to descend again..."
Lin Fu spoke calmly, but his tone was extremely cold. His mind was disturbed by the sudden civil unrest in Jinan, and he had murderous intentions.
Cao Zi'ang, Zhao Qingshan, Ao Canghai, Zhao Hu, Wang Chengfu, Hu Zhicheng and others all agreed solemnly. Song Jia, Du Rong and others who were not allowed to appear in public were also shocked when they heard this behind the screen. Du Rong stood up and said: "Everyone
If the emissary can trust me once, he will let me deliver the letter without sending an arrow..."
"Okay," Lin Fu said, "I'm too lazy to write a letter to persuade you to surrender. Head Du's family can just go in. Tomorrow it will be twilight, and that's when I attack the fortress and annihilate the enemy. Although the heads of the East China Sea bandits are not as valuable as those of the Donglu, Jiangdong Zuo
The army’s record really needs two to three thousand heads to set it off!”
"Then let me go too, I will be more confident." Song Jia, who was wearing a scholar's green shirt, also came out and said.
"You can't..." Lin Fu shook his head flatly.
Song Jia felt a little melancholy and stopped saying anything. She thought to herself: Do you not want me to take this risk? Then why do you want me to follow you?