"Let Li Hanzhi come in!" At the end of May, Li Keyong, who rushed back to Jinyang early, shouted angrily.
Seeing their master's anger, the servants and maids of the Li Mansion ran away one after another, not daring to get into trouble...
The soldiers were filled with murderous intent and their hands were already on the handles of their knives. When the lord gave the order, they would take action and cut Li Hanzhi into a pulp.
Only his wife, Mrs. Liu, was trying to persuade her in a low voice.
"Husband, what do you think of this hairpin?" Mrs. Liu put on a hairpin with a smile.
Li Keyong doesn't want to read it.
"Husband." Ms. Liu walked around to Li Keyong and said with a smile, "Doesn't it look good?"
Li Keyong was helpless and said: "I am the master of the four towns, what can't I ask for? What's there to see in a hairpin? If Madam likes it, you can get hundreds or thousands of them."
"This is different." Ms. Liu said with a smile: "When the army entered Youzhou, they searched Li Kuangchou's residence and selected all the utensils. I took a fancy to this one. Doesn't it look good?"
Li Keyong took a closer look and saw that the golden chrysanthemum-shaped hairpin worn on the head of the smiling lady looked like a butterfly landing on it, which was really interesting.
"It's okay." Li Keyong twitched the corner of his mouth.
Mr. Liu mentioned that he had raided Li Kuangchou's residence, which made him feel better. The capture of Youzhou was the highlight of his life so far. Every time he mentioned this, he would sweep away his decline and become energetic and optimistic.
Then he thought that this hairpin might have been worn by Li Kuangchou's wife Zhang before, and he felt a little guilty. His wife was planning for him day and night, but he didn't.
"This hairpin is beautiful, and my wife is even more beautiful." Li Keyong finally showed a smile on his face.
Mrs. Liu blushed, took Li Keyong's hand, and said with a smile: "I got my jewelry from my husband's battle in Hebei."
Li Keyong laughed when he heard this: "Hebei warriors are rebellious and domineering, how can they give in so easily."
"My husband is good at fighting, and the east of Hedong is a place of great victory. We only need to leave a few troops to guard Shangdang, and then we can devote all our strength to Hebei to fight in battles. With my talent, isn't it easy to capture him?" Mrs. Liu opened her eyes wide and said in surprise.
Li Keyong choked, and after a while he laughed and cursed: "You're taking advantage of this piece of shit like Li Hanzhi. I was going to kill him this time, but you are hooking up with Shao Shude, do you still care about me?"
"Husband, Li Hanzhi is still useful." Mrs. Liu said: "He is quite capable of running an army and fighting. Now he has nowhere to go, so he can only stay in Zezhou. With a little money and food, he can guard Hedong.
South Gate. When you come over later, just reprimand them. Don’t shout or kill them. Such people live in fear and don’t believe anyone. If they do something wrong, Zezhou will turn against them."
"Huh! This piece of shit is only good for this." Li Keyong sneered: "Guarding the south gate, who are you guarding against?"
"It depends on your husband's strategy." Liu said with a smile: "Whether you want to live by guarding the beautiful land of Hedong, or whether you want to be proactive."
Li Ke's eyes narrowed and he remained silent. His wife's words related to Hedong's fundamental strategy.
If the strategy is to defend, then now is the time to take action against Shao Shude, at least put some pressure on it, and maybe try to attack the middle of the river, all the way to the east of the river.
If the strategy is to be aggressive, then we cannot be distracted by other things now and must go all out to capture Hebei.
With Hedong and Hebei in hand, and a population of more than 10 million, who in the world can rival them?
"What do you think of the situation in Heyang, madam?" Li Keyong suddenly asked.
"Pang Shigu mobilized his troops and failed to defeat him repeatedly. Zhu Quanzhong was suspicious by nature and must have ordered the withdrawal." Liu said: "Zhu Quanzhong has such a formidable enemy and is no longer able to threaten Hedong, and his deterrent effect on Wei Bo is also greatly reduced. Husband or
You can take advantage of the situation to attack the prefectures in Hebei, drive Youyan's troops south, and raise Xingming's troops north to attack Cheng De. If your husband wants to attack Wang Rong quickly, you can vassal him. Wang Rong is alone and can only surrender to your husband.
If you want to take them all, you have to fight hard."
Liu's words involve another issue of principle, that is, whether you want to seemingly unify Hebei or actually control the entire Hebei.
The former is not very difficult.
Zhu Quanzhong's influence in Hebei has begun to weaken, which is a general trend. Wang Rong is a flexible person, as you can tell from the fact that he used to give people gifts and stuff money. He did not move his position as Jiedushi and vassalized the Wang family.
How difficult.
But if we want to eradicate the influence of the Wang family and capture the four prefectures of Zhenji one by one, the war will be protracted and everyone in Chengde will fight tooth and nail. It is hard to say how the fight will be. If not done well, it will also attract interference from external forces.
Li Keyong actually understands this truth.
But he was a little impatient and did not have the patience to slowly digest Hebei's territory. In the fifth year of Dashun, all forces accelerated their actions and lowered many standards. They no longer strictly pursued the actual digestion and control of a certain place.
.
Although the Huainan states controlled by Zhu Quanzhong, such as Haozhou, Shouzhou, and Chuzhou, could not be said to be independent separatist forces, because their wealth was regularly submitted, Pei Di, who was in charge of Qiangu, the prison, sent personnel to these three states.
The prefectures counted the acres and household registrations. The armies of these three prefectures were also fighting for Zhu Quanzhong. But unlike the Bian and Song prefectures, the governors of these three prefectures had not been changed since they came over. They relied entirely on the governor's personal support for Zhu Quanzhong.
loyalty to maintain governance.
If the governor rebels, then he really rebels.
But in the Bian and Song states, if the governor rebels, the subordinates may not necessarily rebel. This is the difference.
Zhu Quanzhong has been dealing with these matters recently, but he does not dare to act too hastily. He can only plan them slowly and control them step by step.
Is Shao Shude's annexation of Hezhong actually under control? No, it is still being digested with difficulty.
He has a lot of vassal territory under his command, and so far he only dares to annex weak persimmons, and he still has an appeasing attitude toward Dafan Town.
It is true that vassal vassal towns can also play a big role. For example, the Zhe family captured the east road of Shannan for Shao Shude, and Wei Bo offered tribute to Zhu Quanzhong and helped him solve many financial problems. If Wang Rong declares vassalage to Hedong, he can use it immediately.
, property, and soldiers can be used on the spot.
But this also hid the hidden danger of rebellion.
How to choose is actually quite difficult. You have spent your life to digest the actual control, and you have gone around to suppress the rebellion, which has made you exhausted and the place is dilapidated. However, people have already taken the money from the vassal town and brought the soldiers from the vassal town.
Let’s beat you together. Sometimes it’s not that people don’t want to take control, but that the actual situation doesn’t allow it, and no one is a fool.
The awareness of the local emperor born after the 120 years of feudal rule, and the cultural values that those who have soldiers are the grass-headed kings are the root of all these problems.
"There is still a long way to go to become a virtuous person. This time in Youzhou, I was so annoyed that I had to eat rice with raw meat." Li Keyong sighed: "I shouldn't have imitated my sworn brother. If I had known better, I would have made Gao Siji the military commander.
Youzhou surrendered a long time ago. At this time, I may have led 100,000 troops from Jin and Yan towns to fight Wang Rong in Zhenzhou."
It’s hard for Liu to say anything. The tradition in Hedong is to give territory to soldiers. This time when we marched into Youzhou, due to internal pressure and the factors of learning from Zhu Quanzhong and Shao Shude’s methods, we ceded some Youzhou territory to our own people, resulting in
The rebellion continues and has not yet been quelled.
My husband must have been annoyed and wanted to go back to the old path. But since the Youzhou incident has begun, how can we stop it? There will probably be a series of fighting in the future.
"Husband, since you have returned to Jinyang, you might as well pay a little attention to the battle in Heyang. My uncle will send an envoy to Jinyang to find out your husband's attitude," said Liu.
"Oh? He will definitely come?" Li Key asked with a smile.
"I will definitely come." Mrs. Liu said with certainty, "My uncle is also worried that his husband will interfere with his good deeds. Zelu is condescending, overlooking Heyang. After leaving Taihang Xingdao, there is a flat plain with no danger to defend. To the west is Wuling Road,
Li Hanzhi guarded the high mountains. He could rush down to the rich Jin and Jiangzhous, and his brother-in-law was in no danger. He was mostly worried. Although speaking from common sense, his husband should not have conflicts with him, but his husband usually
"
"Ma'am, are you saying that I'm moody? I don't act according to the rules?" Li Ke pretended to be angry.
Mrs. Liu covered her mouth and smiled, and said: "What I'm afraid of is that my husband's head will get hot and he will act randomly when he gets angry. Maybe he can get some benefits from this."
Li Keyong laughed loudly, but he didn't expect that his temper was actually useful.
Li Hanzhi listened quietly to the laughter of Li Keyong and his wife outside the door, but he breathed a sigh of relief. He was defeated and fled back, losing more than 5,000 people. Even counting the soldiers and horses left behind in Zezhou, he is now
There are only 7,000 soldiers, so we have to be more careful.
Alas, he was played by the Bian thieves. Shao Shude was not a good bird either. He used him as a scapegoat and took advantage of the opportunity to attack Huaizhou. This happened!
…
Outside Heqing County, large armies gathered, and the number of troops Gao Renhou had increased to 30,000 or 40,000, but he did not launch a decisive battle because he was not sure.
There should be more than 70,000 people in the Bian Army, which is almost twice our own strength.
After more than a month of offensive and defensive battles, both sides have basically figured out each other's strength: if the main Yamen army fights in the field array, it's hard to say who will win. It all depends on on-the-spot performance.
The best way to deal with it is to wait for the Bian army to retreat and then pursue it. This is the safest way.
But Shao Shude gave the order to counterattack, but he couldn't say no at all.
On May 20th, Heqing County and Baiyacang jointly sent more than 10,000 troops to attack the trenches and camps of the Bian army, killing more than 1,000 strong soldiers.
The Bian army arrived, and the two sides fought in formation. The Shaozhou native regiments collapsed and the battle line was shaken. At the critical moment, the Tielin army's 3,000 cavalry and 3,000 Fan cavalry rushed forward and defeated the most fiercely pursuing part of the Xiongwei army.
The battle line was stabilized.
On May 22, Cai Songyang, the Tiande Army envoy, led more than 3,000 Yamen soldiers, and with the cooperation of the villagers of the Shaozhou Tutuan Army, stormed the northwest fortress occupied by the Bian Army and defeated it that day.
Pang Shigu mobilized troops to rescue, and the two sides fought outside the camp. The Xia army was in a disadvantageous situation, and the front army retreated slightly. Gao Renhou's cavalry rushed forward, and the danger was averted.
On May 23, they attacked the trench camp again and killed thousands of strong soldiers.
On May 24, the Bian army attacked Liaowu by land and water, but was repulsed.
On the 25th, it rained heavily, and on the 26th, it continued to rain. Both sides stopped their troops, and the front line was still a stalemate.
The fierce counterattack launched by the Xia army took Pang Shigu by surprise, and the huge casualties caused by the attack on the camp also made Gao Renhou grin.
"Fortunately, we didn't start a decisive battle with the Bian bandits." In Heqing County, Gao Renhou sat opposite his staff.
Zhu Quanzhong dared to mobilize 100,000 troops to march westward. He should have full confidence in the combat effectiveness of this army. They defeated Zhu Xuan, Zhu Jin, Shi Pu, and Luo Hongxin, and they were invincible in the field.
"The Jianrui Army of the Bian thieves must have been crippled. They lost nearly 10,000 people before and after. There is basically no trace of them."
"The Heweifan tribe also suffered huge losses. If we force them to attack, they will probably mutiny."
"The Tibetan people who came this time are the most obedient."
The staff talked a lot, but all they mentioned were bloody human lives.
There are 8,000 households in the Heweifan tribe, with a total of more than 10,000 strong men. Now there are about 6,000 left, almost exhausted. The stage with the most heavy losses was the siege battle before Pang Shigu arrived, in which the Bian army was captured and killed.
There were more than 4,000 people, and the Xia army lost more than 11,000, most of which were Tibetan people.
Wuwei's army had 9,000 infantry and cavalry, and now there are about 6,000 left. The main losses also occurred during the siege.
The Tiande army had 6,500 infantry and cavalry, and there were less than 5,000 people left.
The Feilong Army lost about a thousand people in the northwest camp.
The Shaozhou native regiment was defeated and lost more than 2,000 people.
Unknowingly, in the nearly four months of the Heqing War, the Xia army had lost about 17,000 people, including 5,000 or 6,000 from the Yamen army.
The Bian army brought by Pang Shigu lost about 15,000 people in Heqing, including more than 4,000 Bian Song Yamen troops and several hundred naval forces. In addition, the Bian army also lost the Tutuan peasants recruited in Heyang.
It's more than three thousand, but it's really hard to say who will be responsible for this loss.
Before Pang Shigu arrived, Zhang Shensi lost more than 5,000 people in Mengzhou and Heqing, including more than 3,000 Yamen troops.
The main losses on both sides occurred during the offensive stage, and the bloody battle was eye-catching.
Of course, in the Huaizhou battlefield, the Xia Army's battle loss ratio was much better. The Feilong Army only suffered hundreds of casualties before occupying Huaizhou, capturing and killing more than 2,000 Bian Army soldiers, including 1,000 Bian Song Yamen Army soldiers.
But the Bian Army did not seem to lose, because they also captured and killed more than 5,000 Zezhou Army soldiers, which was outrageous.
The heavy casualties and the humidity during the rainy season were torture for both sides.
"It's time to harvest soon." Gao Renhou knocked on the table and said: "The Guide army is ready to attack Zhiguan and bite the Bian army to death, preventing the Zhiguan and Jiyuan army from retreating safely.
.The Bian army is still besieging Huaizhou, but looking at the situation in front of us, they will probably have to relieve the siege. I will quickly come up with a detailed strategy, how to pursue, and which step to focus on."
"As commanded."
"The Bian army can actually hold on. There are ten thousand people on the front line at Zhiguan and Jiyuan. There are still thirty or forty thousand people besieging Huaizhou, and they are very elite. Qibi Zhang only has nine thousand troops, and he is not very good at fighting and defending.
Incense is burning in Huaizhou. What is the reason for the commander-in-chief's judgment that the Bian army will retreat sooner or later?" Gao Renhou was a little helpless. From a military perspective, it made no sense.
Counting the troops that arrived later and those that are on the way, the Xia army deployed more than 80,000 Fan and Han troops on the battlefields of Zhiguan, Huaizhou, and Heqing. Pang Shigu of the Bian army brought at least 100,000 troops, and maybe 11 or 20 troops.
Thousands, plus Heyang's original troops, horses and navy, the total is about 150,000. With 80,000 to force a retreat of 150,000, if it can be done, it will be a brilliant victory.
Let's see, our army is in an invincible position anyway.
