(The first update will be sent first; the second update will be in the early morning)
In the second year of Yue Yongxing, it was past May. The mountains and fields were covered with green grass and blooming flowers. Six horsemen were walking along the road in the direction of Linzi City. However, in this season of blooming flowers, the dilapidated villages and roads far and near
The skinny people on the side are shocking, and they feel deeply that the mountains and rivers are broken and the world is difficult.
Of the six riders, one was in front and the other five were slightly behind.
The five strong men behind were all wearing brown leather armor, carrying large wooden bows, quivers, and thick-sheathed swords tied to both sides of the saddle. Their faces were tense, and their expressions were serious and slightly resentful. They were walking all the way.
, and said nothing.
The leader, in this late spring and early summer season, is wrapped in a dark gray cloak and attracts attention. But looking at him, he is riding a red-maned horse with a flaming mane, and the hood covers half of his face.
There is a deep scar on the nose that cuts diagonally across half of his face. He holds the reins in his hands and looks up into the distance. Apart from the rolling hills, there is still no shadow of Linzi City.
The six men were riding their horses slowly, when the sound of horse hooves came from the west, and a group of cavalry slowly galloped out from a gap in a low mountain. This group of cavalry looked like the Qingzhou Army, and the farmers in the field didn't pay much attention to it.
When they saw the general coming, they just stayed away from it, but the six horsemen walking slowly on the road reined in their reins and looked at the group of cavalry coming from the entrance of the mountain.
Gu Wuchen, Gu Siyuan and his son were in charge of Qingzhou's military affairs, and they were strict in running the army. There were thirteen people in this cavalry group. They had no way to go on the main road, but they came from the flank while trampling on the fields. The farmers in the fields only regarded them as domineering soldiers and horse riders.
But I became suspicious.
In the winter last year, tens of thousands of barbarians crossed the river south and devastated Linzi and Qingzhou. Although the main cities were defended, the people's livelihood suffered greatly. In addition, the local area frequently increased taxes to protect the Hehuai defense line. At that time, there was a serious drought in the Hehuai River.
It is increasingly difficult for people to make ends meet.
The rebel troops were defeated, the hungry people were forced to rebel, and the mountains in Qingzhou, Linzi, and Jinan, Tai'an and other counties in the west were close to each other. As a result, in Shandong, when the Hu soldiers retreated, the rebels, bandits, and horse bandits popped up like leeks after spring.
Come, so that small groups of Huqi penetrate into it, and it is like entering an uninhabited land.
When encountering a small group of soldiers and horses crossing the road in the wilderness, how could a horseman let down his guard?
The group of cavalry moved closer and closer, and when they reached three hundred paces, the formation spread out like a cone. The men on both wings had already taken off their riding bows and put their hands on their quivers, showing the exact posture of attacking.
Take a closer look at the cavalry, although their attire definitely looks like that of the Qingzhou Army, but there is no stubble in their manes exposed under their metal hoods.
"Hugo!"
The six horsemen confirmed that the approaching cavalry group was disguised as the Yanhu outpost that had infiltrated. They dismounted and gathered to protect the one-armed man among them. They took off the large Tuomu bow they were carrying. Before anyone could give an order, "Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!" Several sharp arrows were shot at the cavalry that was charging forward on horseback.
The large Tuomu bow carried by Ma Ke is a powerful walking bow, which can shoot at a distance of 150 steps. Ma Ke's shooting skills are also excellent.
The cavalry team rushed to a hundred paces, and ten arrows were fired from here. They concentrated on the two cavalry in the middle, and none of them fell into the air. The two horses were shot dead on the spot, and they fell to the ground with a scream.
The cavalryman on horseback also fell to the ground.
Only then did this team of cavalry realize the power of these horse riders. Although there were still more than a hundred steps to rush forward, more than a hundred steps were enough for each of these horse riders to shoot two or three more arrows.
In the face of the powerful infantry bow, the cavalry bow suffered too much, and within a hundred steps, the leather armor could no longer protect the infantry bow from being shot; this team of cavalry pulled up their fallen comrade on the horse, not daring to charge hard, and immediately
Divide into two teams and spread out to the wings to increase the distance between you and the horsemen.
But at this moment, several sharp arrows were fired as fast as meteors. He abandoned his horse and took the man, shooting down one man immediately, and three other horsemen with arrows on their shoulders fled far away with the crowd.
Hu was a fast horseman and was good at riding. The two horses circled back, leaned down and pulled the man who had been hit by an arrow onto his horse, and then galloped away, leaving two dying horses lying on the ground still struggling and moaning, and several beaches.
Bloodstains.
The horseman had no intention of pursuing, so he pulled out the dozens of arrows that had been shot into the horse's body, wiped away the blood and put them in his quiver, then packed up and hurriedly set off on the road.
Farmers and hungry people from far and near, after experiencing the initial panic, gathered around to grab the horse meat that had been killed by an arrow. The more people gathered, the more people gathered. Without knives, they tore it with their hands. Some people also fought together to grab an extra piece of horse meat. The scene was
Chaos.
After a long time, more than a hundred local soldiers came from the east road after hearing the news; the middle-aged man at the head was wearing a green official robe and riding a green-maned horse.
The soldiers drove away the hungry people. The middle-aged official looked at the two bloody horse skeletons left on the ground and remained silent for a long time.
A junior high school officer asked passers-by and came over to report: "The ones who drove away the Hu soldiers were six passing horsemen. One of them had his left arm broken. It must be General Chu and the others..." There were not many warriors in Qingzhou who had broken arms at that time.
There are still some in the territory. If you ask about their appearance, you can roughly guess who just passed by here and chased Hu Qi away.
The middle-aged official led several retinues on horseback to chase south. Fortunately, the horseman was not in a hurry. When he caught up, the horseman dismounted in front of the Hengtai Posthouse and was planning to stay here for the night.
"General Chu!"
The one-armed horseman turned around and saw the middle-aged official arriving on horseback. He handed the horse to his entourage, went up to him and saluted, "Master Cheng, why are you here?"
"You passed by Guangrao without entering the city, but you asked me why I was here?" Cheng Weiyuan asked.
Chu Zheng did not defend himself, but apologized: "Chu Zheng is rude..."
"I don't blame you. Mr. Zhang defended you for a few words and then got reprimanded by Gu Qingzhou. If you don't come to Guangrao, are you afraid of disturbing me?" Cheng Weiyuan said.
Chu Zheng smiled bitterly and said: "When Chu Zheng was taken in by Master Zhang and Master Cheng, he once swore not to abandon Yang Xin as long as he lived. Today, he broke his oath and left Yang Xin, and even had to leave the governor's tomb alone.
At the top of Zhulong Mountain - I really can't see my old friend..."
Cheng Weiyuan shook his head and sighed, and pulled Chu Zheng towards the post house. This post house was attacked by Hu Qi at the beginning of the year, and more than thirty post soldiers were slaughtered and the houses were set on fire.
This is an important pass into Linzi, and there is a large town called Hengtai on the side. In late February, when the Hu soldiers retreated, the military commander urgently allocated money to repair the post and stationed an outpost to guard it.
Less than three months have passed. The posthouse has been newly renovated, but the remnants of the disaster can still be seen everywhere.
Yi Cheng knew that Cheng Weiyuan, the magistrate of Guangrao County, and Chu Zheng, the captain of Yangxin School who had just resigned, were spending the night here, so he did not dare to neglect, so he quickly arranged a quiet private courtyard and served wine and food.
"Will General Chu leave Qingzhou and go to Huaidong?" Cheng Weiyuan asked.
"The Gu family father and son are already suspicious. If I defect to Huaidong, Mr. Zhang and Mr. Cheng will be in a worse situation in Qingzhou," Chu Zheng shook his head and said, "I plan to go back to my hometown in Jiangxi - I didn't dare to go back in the past.
, I am afraid of disturbing my family; now that the new emperor has ascended the throne, no one will ask about the past, so I will go back and take a look before making any plans."
Chu Zheng used to be the commander of Lu Jingyan's personal guard battalion. Lu Jingyan died in the Jinan War. According to the law, if the personal guard is left alone, he must be punished and punished. After the Yangxin War, Chu Zheng was sheltered by Zhang Jinxian, Cheng Weiyuan and others, and stayed in
Yangxin settled down, but he didn't dare to contact his wife, children, and parents back home in Jiangxi.
In the following years, wars were frequent, and Chu Zheng had no time to move his family to Yangxin. He was lucky to think that Yangxin had now become the front line against Yanhu.
Zhang Jinxian was nominally appointed as Zuo Changshi of the Qingzhou Zhizhi Envoy, ranking above Zhao Qinmin, but in fact he had been vacated; Cheng Weiyuan was also transferred from Yangxin to Guangrao as magistrate, and Chu Zheng was just the last step in the purge of Yangxin officials by the Gu family.
A chess piece that was about to be kicked out. What's more, Chu Zheng had repeatedly clashed with the Gu family and his son on Qingzhou's defense affairs. It was no longer surprising that Chu Zheng caught a mistake and was deprived of his general position in early May.
"Huaidong is currently waging war in eastern Zhejiang. If you go to Huaidong, you can have a good future in serving the imperial court. Don't worry about Mr. Zhang and me," Cheng Weiyuan said. "Although Mr. Zhang and I are not welcome, we are officially appointed by the imperial court after all."
Officials, even though Gu Qingzhou doesn’t want to see us, he can’t do anything to us?”
"The situation in Yangxin is very dangerous. Although Hu Gou's troops in Yannan withdrew in February, they have been gathering in the lower reaches of the Zhulong River. Hu Gou is likely to abandon the plains and attack Qingzhou first. Huaidong's worries are not unreasonable.
," Chu Zheng said, "Yang Xin's Ding households must evacuate south quickly and cannot be delayed."
"It sounds simple, but how can hundreds of thousands of people evacuate?" Cheng Weiyuan asked with a wry smile, "Maybe the situation is not that bad."
Qingzhou Defense focuses on Linzi and evacuates all the population in the area north of Linzi to the south to form a deep buffer zone - this is the river-Huaihe east line defense plan strongly advocated by Huaidong. But this plan is not only unacceptable to Jiangning, but also
Except for a very few people in Qingzhou, most people don't agree.
However, Zhang Jinxian, Cheng Weiyuan and other officials close to Huaidong were also very hesitant.
For ordinary people, few people will consider the overall situation; abandoning the land and retreating south, not to mention the loss of scholars, they will be defeated and abandoned, and they will curse the officers and soldiers for their incompetence and lack of courage to fight the enemy.
Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of people have left their homes and moved to the south of Linzi. How will they be resettled? What kind of chaos will it cause to the counties south of Linzi? These are all things that must be considered.
Compared with holding the banks of the Zhulong River, evacuating hundreds of thousands of people south is a much more difficult plan. The resistance from all aspects is very strong, and it cannot be done easily. It takes an extremely strong person to pull this thing off.
Proceed smoothly.
Deep down in their hearts, Zhang Jinxian, Cheng Weiyuan and others also hope to hold the front line of the Zhulong River. Moreover, their previous war experience also makes them have the illusion of repelling the Yanhu troops in the city. This fundamentally
As a result, their position on the choice of defense plan is not firm - this will not change because of their close relationship with Huaidong. After all, everyone has their own opinions.
Chu Zheng was a general who grew up during the ten years of war in Eastern Fujian. The wars he experienced were much crueler and bloodier than those experienced by Zhang Jinxian, Cheng Weiyuan and even Gu Siyuan - so he was one of the few in the Qingzhou Army who firmly supported the Huaidong Plan.
Even if a general is not suspicious because of his relationship with Huaidong, he will still be ostracized in the Qingzhou Army.
Cheng Weiyuan added: "Shouyang Xin has been finalized and cannot be changed; of course there are dangers involved, so Mr. Zhang and I still hope that you can go to Huaidong..."