A few days later, Liu Xiu's 100,000-strong army and Xie Gong's 50,000-strong army left Handan and headed south to Wei County.
Starting from Handan and going south for more than twenty miles, you can enter the territory of Wei County.
Wei County is a large county in Jizhou, with nearly twenty counties in total. It is a large area and has a large population. In addition, it borders Hanoi, and the climate and environment are similar to Hanoi. It is an important grain-producing area.
Wei County, during the Warring States Period, was the state of Wei. During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao was named King of Wei, and his territory was Wei County. Cao Cao designated Yecheng, the county seat of Wei County, as the capital of the country. The famous Tongque Tower was built there.
Yecheng in Wei County.
Cao Wei, the State of Wei, in which Wei came from Wei County.
When the world was not in chaos, the people of Wei County lived and worked in peace and contentment. Because of the abundant grain production, the people's life could be said to be prosperous.
But after the chaos in the world, Wei County became the hardest hit area. Precisely because the people were rich, today this rebel army came in and looted once, and tomorrow the insurgent army came in and looted again, causing all the industries in Wei County to be ruined and the people to live in dire straits.
The common people could no longer survive, so they either defected directly to the rebels, or simply moved to other places for refuge. The large and fertile land in Wei County became increasingly deserted, and nine out of ten villages were empty.
After entering Wei County, Liu Xiu and Xie Gong were filled with emotion as they looked at the abandoned villages and large areas of abandoned fields.
Again, from the bottom of their hearts, both Liu Xiu and Xie Gong hope that the situation in Hebei will be stable and that the people can live and work in peace and contentment.
They walked further south to Liangqi County. Before they reached Liangqi City, they encountered a large number of Liangqi people.
Liu Xiu got out of the carriage, looked forward, and then stepped forward. Long Yuan, Long Zhun, and Long Bo hurriedly followed up and warned in a low voice: "Your Majesty, be careful of fraud!"
"No problem." Liu Xiu waved his hand. He separated from the crowd of his own soldiers, walked out, looked at the large number of people on the opposite side, and asked: "Where are you going? Why are you so panicked?"
Liu Xiu did not wear a helmet and wore a long robe. He looked gentle and polite, but the soldiers around him were very polite to him.
A commoner said anxiously: "Your Excellency, we are all residents of Liangqi County. We heard that the Qingdu Army is coming, and we plan to take refuge in Handan!" After a pause, he asked cautiously: "Who are you, Your Excellency?"
Where did it come from?" wavv
"Handan!" Hearing Liu Xiu's reply, the people were all shocked. Before people could ask more questions, Liu Xiu said: "You don't need to panic. My Excellency, Liu Xiu, led the army into Wei County this time to quell the rebel army.
"
When they learned that the elegant young man in front of them was Liu Xiu, the people present were all shocked. The person who had just asked the question was the first to react. He knelt down quickly, kowtowed forward, and said in a trembling voice: "Grass people...grass people.
Meet Prince Xiao!"
The rest of the people also knelt down and said in unison: "Common people pay their respects to King Xiao!"
Liu Xiu stepped forward and helped the kneeling people up, then waved his hands to the others and said, "Everyone, please get up quickly!"
When everyone stood up one after another, Liu Xiu said seriously: "There is no need to go to Handan anymore. Today, our troops will destroy the invading thieves!"
Hearing this, the people were all happy and dancing with joy, and some could not help but hug each other and cry.
Not to mention the backward era at that time, even in modern times, it would be difficult to move your family and your family away from your hometown and live in other places. At that time, if the people were not forced to live, they could not survive.
Yes, people will never drag their families and move to other places.
Can people be unhappy now that they know that King Xiao personally led his army to exterminate the traitor army, and that he no longer has to seek refuge in Handan, a place he is unfamiliar with?
After the excitement, people once again knelt down in large groups and said in unison: "Prince Xiao, please allow me to wait and pay my respects!"
"Long live King Xiao!" "Long live King Xiao"
Let me mention here that in the Han Dynasty, "long live" was not a special term for the emperor, but a very common blessing that everyone could use. For example, if an old man from a family had a birthday, those who came to congratulate him could use "long live".
bless.
It was not until the Tang Dynasty that "long live" became a term used exclusively by the emperor. Therefore, in the court halls of the Han Dynasty, you could not hear the officials shouting "Long live my emperor, long live the emperor" together, and there was no ceremony of three kowtows or nine bows.
The title of emperor cannot even use the word "long live".
When Liu Xiu was talking to the people, Xie Gong also rushed over.
After learning what happened, Xie Gong's face turned ugly. He gritted his teeth and said angrily to Liu Xiu: "The bandit army was so audacious that they even looted Liang Qi. Will their next step be to attack Handan directly? In their eyes,
But there is still an emperor, and is there still a king's law?"
Seeing that Xie Gong's face was red with excitement and he looked like he wanted to eat someone, Liu Xiu was not as angry as him and said quietly: "The Qingdu Army is taking revenge."
Xie Gong was startled and looked at Liu Xiu in confusion.
Liu Xiu said: "Last time we sent troops to Wei County, the Qingdu Army suffered a lot. This time they fled into Wei County again and became more and more unscrupulous. They are just retaliating for the last time we sent troops to Wei County!"
"How unreasonable! These thieves should all be cut to pieces!" After speaking, he bowed his head and shouted: "General Liu!"
Xie Gong's general Liu Qing stepped forward, stepped in and saluted, and said: "The last general is here!"
"General Liu, with your 10,000 elite troops, you must annihilate all the rebels who invaded Liang Qi, leaving no one behind!"
"General, I obey!" Liu Qing agreed, mounted his horse, and went to the formation to raise troops.
All the generals under Liu Xiu looked at him, just waiting for him to give the order to go to war. Liu Xiu did not send troops hastily. He looked at Long Yuan and asked: "Can I have any information?"
Long Yuan shook his head and said: "The spies ahead have not returned yet."
Liu Xiu nodded and said to his generals: "Instruct the whole army to rest where they are."
Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you fight a hundred battles without danger.
Now they just heard from the fleeing people in Liang Qi that there were rebels who wanted to attack Liang Qi. What was the specific situation and how many soldiers and horses did the rebels have? We still didn't know anything about it. Liu Xiu did not dare or was unwilling to launch troops rashly.
Liu Xiujun rested where he was, while Liu Qing led 10,000 soldiers and headed straight for Liang Qi.
Seeing this, Xie Gong frowned secretly. Before sending out troops, everyone had agreed to come together to Wei County to destroy the rebel army. Now that they were going to fight the rebel army, why did Liu Xiu stand still?
He walked up to Liu Xiu and said, "King Xiao, we see that the bandits are near Liang Qi. We hope that King Xiao will send troops as soon as possible to exterminate the bandits with our troops!"
Liu Xiu asked: "Has Shangshu Xie received any information about the discovery of the bandit army?"
"Uh... I haven't received any information about this yet."
"Xie Shangshu, do you know how many soldiers there are in the rebel army?" "I don't know." "Do you know who the leader of the rebel army is?" "I don't know..."
Liu Xiu said: "Now, we know nothing about the situation of the rebel army, how can we rush to fight? Wait a moment, wait for the intelligence from the front to come back, and it will not be too late to send troops!"
There was nothing wrong with what he said, but it made Xie Gong feel very unhappy.
We have an army of 150,000 men, so why wait for a report? Just attack them. Even if the rebels have more troops, they cannot be a match for our army of 150,000 men.
He took a deep breath and pondered for a moment. After all, he still didn't argue with Liu Xiu. He just said with some meaning in his words: "When King Xiao arrived in Wei County, he suddenly became cautious in using troops!"
When Liu Xiu fought in battles, he left the world with an impression of toughness. Even when he was outnumbered, he dared to take the lead in charging. The Battle of Kunyang is a clear example.
However, the world misunderstood Liu Xiu. Liu Xiu was always cautious in fighting and made only a handful of mistakes.
Hearing Xie Gong's words, he smiled lightly and didn't take it seriously. He even went to find a few elderly people and asked them about the specific situation here in Wei County.
Knowing that one of the old men had land at home, Liu Xiu even exchanged ideas with him about farming.
Xie Gong was by the side. After listening for a while, he couldn't listen anymore. He walked aside and discussed the next war with his soldiers.
After more than half an hour, one of Xie Gong's spies ran back and reported to Xie Gong that the Qingdu Army was indeed found near Liang Qi.
Xie Gong was shocked and asked hurriedly: "How many soldiers and horses does the bandit army have?"
"Reporting to your lord, there are more than three thousand people." The spy replied seriously.
Hearing this, Xie Gong secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The bandit army only had 3,000 people, and Liu Qing led an army of 10,000 people. It should be easy to annihilate the bandit army.
When Liu Xiuyou heard the spy's reply, he suddenly came over and asked, "How many people are there in the bandit army?"
"Uh... Reporting back to King Xiao, there are more than 3,000 bandits! They are fleeing to the west now!"
"Oops!" Liu Xiu whispered, turning his head and shouting: "Send the order and the whole army sets off to march to Qin Mountain to the west of Liang Qi!"
At this time, Liu Xiu was no longer as relaxed as when chatting with the people, and his face was serious. He asked Long Yuan to bring over a war horse. He jumped on the horse and led his army to march toward the southwest.
Xie Gong didn't know what Liu Xiu was nervous about, and he kept urging his soldiers to speed up the march and march at full speed.
In response to this, one of Xie Gong's counselors secretly laughed in his heart and whispered to him: "King Xiao knows that the rebel army only has 3,000 people and wants to attack with our own side!"
Xie Gong didn't say anything. He rode on his horse and caught up with Liu Xiu, walking side by side with him. He said seriously: "Prince Xiao, don't be anxious. There are only three thousand rebels. General Liu can take them easily!"
Seeing Xie Gong's confident look, Liu Xiu asked curiously: "Xie Shangshu thinks that Qingdu Army knows that our army has entered Wei County, but he doesn't?"
Xie Gong was stunned for a moment. The bandit armies from all walks of life have planted many informants in Handan. The bandit army should not be unaware of this huge movement of one hundred and fifty thousand troops.
He said: "The Qingdu Army should already know, why did Prince Xiao ask this question?"
Liu Xiu did not answer Xie Gong's question and asked: "Since the Qingdu Army already knew that our 150,000-strong army was heading south and entered Wei County, why did they only send 3,000 people to attack Liang Qi? Did they make a special trip to let this army go south?
Three thousand people are willing to die? Let them show off that the mantis can act as a chariot?"
Xie Gong looked at Liu Xiu blankly. After a while, he suddenly took a breath and said in horror: "What King Xiao means is that the bandit army is deceitful?! Are these three thousand bandit army just bait?"
Liu Xiu said: "To the west of Liang Dynasty is Mount Qin. The terrain is steep and the trees are like a sea. It is very easy to set up an ambush! If the rebel army escapes into Mount Qin, and General Liu leads his troops to enter rashly, he will be ambushed!"
Xie Gong's expression changed greatly, and he hurriedly called a spy, telling him to catch up with Liu Qing quickly and not to rush into the mountains after the enemy. Liu Xiu glanced at Xie Gong and secretly shook his head, reminding him at this time that it might be too late.
Liu Xiu didn't care about Liu Qing's life or death, but once Liu Qing's troops were annihilated by the Qingdu Army, it would boost the morale of the Qingdu Army and bring huge resistance to his side's subsequent counterinsurgency.