Han Qian gathered four to five thousand people in Longya City, but his foundation was still shallow, and the fighting will of the newly recruited soldiers had not been tested in actual combat.
Especially if they want to attack Jimingzhai, Chenyang City and other places guarded by the Chenzhou Fan soldiers in the next step, the military morale of the newly recruited Fan soldiers will be severely tested.
In addition to the new recruits, the two thousand generals previously recruited were not without problems. However, they mainly used tricks to capture Yingyu Village and did not experience difficult and dangerous battles, so many problems were not exposed.
, Under this situation, Han Qian hoped that Han Ting would cut down the vassalage of Tanzhou first and send troops from Ezhou to attack Tanzhou first, so that his side could be more fully prepared.
However, things may not go as Han Qian wishes.
Throughout September, with the efforts of Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, Lin Haizheng and others, the armored soldiers of the three battalions were undergoing intense and orderly training. The iron smelting field and armor workshop also made every effort to build various combat weapons.
Machinery.
On this day in mid-October, Han Qian was chatting with Zhang Ping and called Xi Xunqiao over to inquire about some situations in Shanyue Fanhu in Zhuzhou. However, his father Han Daoxun sent a messenger from Qianyang City to say that Yuan Guowei, Zheng Xingxuan and others
Zheng Hui has been escorted to Xuzhou and asked to meet him back in Qianyang City.
"His Majesty sent Zheng Hui to Xuzhou?"
If Han Laoshan's nephew Han Dong hadn't rushed over with his father's handwritten letter, Han Qian would have been unable to imagine that Zheng Hui was already in Qianyang City at this time.
Han Qian raised his head and glanced at Zhang Ping, wanting to know what he thought about this matter.
"It should be that the imperial court has decided to cut off the vassalage of Tanzhou at this time, right?" Zhang Ping said.
Han Qian smiled, knowing that Zhang Ping had other guesses, but it was just not convenient for him to say them out at this time.
Zheng Hui joined the army as a soldier in Huangzhou in the early days. After the Jingxiang War, he was transferred to the county prince's mansion as a consultant to join the army. At this time, apart from Mr. Baishi Zheng Chang, Zheng Hui was the most core figure in Jinling.
At this time, Zheng Hui, escorted by Yuan Guowei, Zheng Xingxuan and others, passed through the blockade of Tanzhou and entered Qianyang City over the mountains. It was definitely not as simple as informing the imperial court of the battle plan against Tanzhou.
If that was really the case, it would be enough for Yuan Guowei to travel over the mountains and ridges to deliver the order. It would not be troublesome for a heavyweight like Zheng Hui to make such an arduous trip.
If they were unfortunate enough to be targeted by Tanzhou's scouts and spies, the losses to the Zheng family and the prince's palace would be extremely heavy.
Han Qian immediately called Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, Lin Hai and others over and ordered them to strictly guard the city. He and Zhang Ping went out of the mountain that night and rushed to Linjiang County in the middle of the night where the city wall had been built to a height of one foot. They rested for two days.
An hour later, at dawn, we took a boat and rushed to Qianyang City.
The water flows along the current, very fast.
Han Qian and others entered Qianyang City before noon and met Zheng Hui, Yuan Guowei and others again.
"It will be a year before we see each other again. I hope Han Sima is safe and well!"
Although Zheng Hui had already changed into clean robes, it could be seen that he had gone through a lot of hard work this time. There were several cuts on his cheeks caused by sharp rocks or branches.
Zheng Hui's beard is clean, leaving only two short mustaches on his lips, but his cheeks are much thinner than last year.
"Did you come here from Ezhou?" Han Qian asked.
Since Yuan Guowei left Xuzhou last time, he has been staying in Ezhou to assist Shen Yang in collecting information about Tanzhou. This time Yuan Guowei accompanied Zheng Hui, so Han Qian naturally asked this question.
"We borrowed the road from Hongzhou. Mr. Yuan returned to His Highness the Third Highness from Ezhou at the end of August..." Zheng Hui said.
"Coming from Hengzhou and Shaozhou, the hardships are not small," Han Qian said with emotion, "How is the situation in Hengzhou and Shaozhou?"
Hongzhou (Nanchang) is located in the southwest of Poyang Lake. Going southwest from Hongzhou, there is a sloping valley passing through the territory of Yuanzhou. You can cross the Luoxiao Mountains into the north of Hengzhou, and then cross the Xiangshui River from the west of Hengzhou.
Shaozhou.
From Wugang County on the west side of Shaozhou, you cross the main line of Xuefeng Mountain and reach Wukou Village where Wu River flows into Yuan River. From Wukou Village, you can go upstream for more than 30 miles to Qianyang City.
This journey covers 1,500 to 600 miles, and we have to cross the Luoxiao Mountains and the Xuefeng Mountains, which is very difficult and dangerous.
Although there are post roads connecting the Luoxiao Mountains and Xuefeng Mountains, the post roads between the mountains are quite rugged.
In particular, the post road connecting Qianyang County in Xuzhou and Wugang County in Shaozhou at the central and southern foothills of the Xuefeng Mountains is even more dangerous and remote.
Although this post road has existed since the Western Han Dynasty, it is also one of the most important passages connecting the Xiang River to the Yuan River and to the old county in central Guizhou. As long as there is no war, business travel will continue.
However, in most parts of this ancient post road, horses only passed along the mountain wall.
Therefore, Han Qian did not expect Xuzhou soldiers and horses to use this post road to attack Shaozhou, nor was he afraid that Shaozhou soldiers and horses could use this post road to threaten Xuzhou.
This post road is too dangerous and too long. If you control any key pass, thousands of soldiers and horses can be blocked.
Currently, Xuzhou has two hundred elite troops stationed in Wukou Village where Yuan River and Wushui River intersect.
Wukou Village stands between cliffs on two sides, and is close to the 100-foot stone cliff on both sides. Only the northeast corner has an open river beach wharf of more than 200 paces. Ships coming and going are anchored there, and business travelers can go up and down from there. But if you want to capture Wukou Village,
But it is extremely difficult.
Of course, Shaozhou's soldiers and horses can spare no effort, or there are large warships in Tanzhou that can attack Wukou Village directly from the river, so it is not absolutely impossible to capture Wukou Village.
Comparatively speaking, the road heading west from Hongzhou, crossing the Luoxiao Mountains via Yuanzhou and entering Hengzhou is much easier. There are a series of intermittent rift valleys distributed in the central and northern foothills of the Luoxiao Mountains.
It is also a main channel through which the Chu army can threaten and attack Tanzhou.
And because of this, Tanzhou must be extremely guarded against the passage at the northwest foot of the Luoxiao Mountains. Zheng Hui and the others would have to take that route, which would be both hard and dangerous.
Counting the time, Zheng Hui and the others set out from Jinling in early September. They traveled by land and water and arrived at Qianyang City within a month. They didn't even get much rest on the way. It's no wonder that generals like Zheng Xingxuan also had faces full of anger.
haggard.
Of course, Han Qian was more concerned about the situation changes in Shaozhou and Hengzhou south of Tanzhou during the past month.
Although Shaozhou and Hengzhou were not directly included in the jurisdiction of Tanzhou Jiedu Envoy Office, Shaozhou and Hengzhou were truly the back gardens of Tanzhou.
On the one hand, Shaozhou, Hengzhou and Tanzhou are located in the Xiangjiang River Basin, and there are no majestic mountains like the Wuling Mountains to separate them. Some scattered low hilly areas cannot prevent the three states from integrating into one terrain.
More importantly, the governors appointed in Shaozhou and Hengzhou were all former generals of the Ma family.
In the early years, civil strife broke out in the Ma family, and Ma Yin had to surrender to the God-blessed Emperor Yang Mi and ask Da Chu to send troops to quell the rebellion.
The states of Jinggui and Guizhou were also under the jurisdiction of the Ma family, and their influence once extended to the territory of the old counties of Qianyang and Guilin.
In the early years, the governor of Xuzhou was also appointed by Ma Yuanheng, who was the governor of Langzhou at that time.
However, Ma Yuanheng was extremely unpopular with the people because of his violent expropriation in Xuzhou. Finally, during the Ma clan's civil strife, he was expelled from Xuzhou by the four surnames and had to go to Tanzhou to join Ma Yin. Jinling was also appointed governor of Chen and Shao.
Although as a condition for inviting Emperor Yang Mi to send troops, Shao and Heng states were separated from Tanzhou after the internal rebellion of the Ma family subsided and were nominally under the jurisdiction of Jinling. In recent years, the governors and chief historians of these two states have been replaced by Sima.
Other major official positions are controlled by Ma's old generals or local native surnames.
Therefore, Emperor Tianyou did not expect to drive any nails into Shaozhou and Hengzhou in a short period of time.
Han Qian had previously mainly sent scouts to infiltrate Shaozhou and Hengzhou to spy on local reactions and speculate on the level of vigilance within Tanzhou.
Of course, if Zheng Hui, Yuan Guowei and others personally passed through Shaozhou and Hengzhou, their experience would naturally be deeper.
"The secret agents of Zifangsi lurking in Tanzhou confirmed at the end of August that Tanzhou had secretly sent envoys to Shu and Liang to seek assistance. Zhao Sheng, the governor of Shaozhou, and Luo Jia, the governor of Hengzhou, also sent their legitimate sons before the end of August.
Study tour in Tanzhou! Immediately afterwards, the news that Wang Liang, the governor of Chenzhou, died of the epidemic spread to Jinling. It was also the same, so Your Majesty ordered us to rush to Xuzhou to join the defense envoy and Han Sima." Zheng Hui directly said
It was information that Han Qian could not detect.
Han Qian thought it was Zheng Hui who set out from Jinling to Xuzhou after Jinling already knew the news that they had captured Yingyu Village. Unexpectedly, the road was blocked and the news was inconvenient, but it was Tanzhou's actions at the end of August and the Chenzhou governor Wang Liang.
The news of his sudden death finally made Emperor Tianyou decide to send Zheng Hui to Xuzhou.
Zuosi's more than 100 elite scouts were either incorporated into the army camp as military attachés, or into the labor camp or as junior subordinates. Manpower was often limited, and Han Qian only had this small amount of manpower, and at this time there was no way to conduct a deeper attack on Tanzhou.
level of intelligence spying; even to deliver information to Jinling and Ezhou, a group of messengers were only sent out every two months.
Hearing what Zheng Hui said, Han Qian guessed that Tanzhou should be Zhao Zhixian. After Tan Yuliang returned, he quickly made a decision. He was also slightly surprised and said with emotion to his father Han Daoxun and Zhang Ping:
"Tanzhou is more decisive than imagined!"
Han Qian thought that releasing Zhao Zhixian and Tan Yuliang back to Tanzhou would be more or less confusing. However, it seems that Tanzhou is already preparing for the worst after the release of Zhao Zhixian and Tan Yulang.
Zhao Sheng of Shaozhou and Luo Jia of Hengzhou both sent their sons to Tanzhou as hostages. This almost means that it is impossible to peacefully reduce the vassalage just by relying on the decree of Emperor Tianyou.
Although Han Qian didn't have much expectations for this, he felt a little unbearable when he thought that the war was about to start and the land of Xianghu would be a sea of blood again.
Of course, Zheng Hui said that such crucial information was obtained by spies from Zifangsi. This also revealed a very crucial piece of information, that is, regarding the conspiracy to cut down the vassal, Emperor Tianyou had already called Niu Gengru, Zhao Mingting and other people from the Anning Palace.
Know the secret.
However, Han Qian believed that Emperor Tianyou had control at this time, so Anning Palace and the Prince's family should not dare to do anything.
"The situation in Xuzhou is much better than what we knew when we were in Jinling. Your Majesty's secrets are to be sent to the Defense Envoy. Please ask Han Sima and Master Zhang to take a look at them first, and then we can discuss other matters." Zheng Hui said.
At this time, Han Daoxun took out the edict he had kept close to his sleeve and handed it to Han Qian. Zhang Ping read it.
When Zheng Hui came out of Jinling in early September, he didn't know that Han Daoxun, Han Qian and his son had completely controlled the situation in Xuzhou. It wasn't until he entered Qianyang City the day before yesterday that he realized that the situation in Xuzhou was much better than he had initially expected.
, but when he watched Han Daoxun hand over the secret decree, his heart still rose to his throat.
At this moment, Zheng Hui glanced at Feng Liao and Han Daoxun who were standing behind Han Qian. Han Qian had no scruples in letting the son of the rebellious minister know the secrets in Xuzhou. He was really worried that the Han family and his son might disobey the decree.
.
And if the Han family father and son really resisted and disobeyed the decree, he and the court would probably be unable to do anything.
Han Qian was in a calm mood and read the secret decree brought to Xuzhou by Zheng Huixin with Zhang Ping, the supervisor of the army.
In this secret edict, Emperor Tianyou ordered the official establishment of the Wuling Army Defense Envoy's Office on the basis of the original Xuzhou Defense Envoy's Office, covering the south of Wuling County in the original Langzhou, the eastern and southern foothills of the Wuling Mountains, including Chenzhou, Xuzhou and
The areas including the main counties under the jurisdiction of the two prefectures, and their military defense and other matters are all under the jurisdiction of the Wuling Army Defense Envoy.
In addition to his father, Han Daoxun, who continued to serve as the defense envoy and the governor of Xuzhou, Zheng Hui served as the deputy defense envoy of Wuling and replaced Wang Liang, who "died suddenly of the epidemic" in late August as the governor of Chenzhou. Emperor Tianyou ordered Xuzhou soldiers and horses to be deployed in the shortest possible time.
Within the time limit, escort Zheng Hui into Chenzhou to take up his post.
Zhang Ping read the secret edict and didn't look at anyone. Instead, he calmly handed the secret edict back to Han Daoxun for personal collection.