At dawn, General An Zhong led eight thousand soldiers to Xuancheng County. They set off at the same time as the cavalry. Ten thousand cavalry took the Changzhou line, while eight thousand infantry set out from Jiangning and entered Xuanzhou along the north bank of the Yangtze River, bypassing the enemy.
Although they ran all the way and moved lightly, they still arrived in Xuancheng County two days later than the cavalry.
An Zhong is the nephew of An Guiren, the governor of Hexi Province. He was only seventeen years old when he joined the army. He fought in the army for more than ten years and made many military exploits. Now he has also been named General Wei, becoming the youngest general in the Jin army.
An Zhong led eight thousand soldiers into Xuancheng. He and Su Zhen held a simple city defense handover ceremony. The defense of Xuancheng County was officially handed over to An Zhong and his eight thousand troops.
In Cangcheng, Su Zhen introduced to An Zhong: "There are a total of 460,000 shi of grain and 200,000 guan of money. They are not bad. They are all Kaiyuan Tongbao. There is no gold or silver. There are about 10,000 pigs and sheep, and soldiers and armor."
Twenty thousand pairs, other tents, drums, flags, pig iron, copper ingots, etc. have not yet been counted, the quantity is not small."
An nodded and asked again: "How many surrender troops are there?"
"There are more than 2,700 surrendered troops, all from nearby prefectures and counties. They are undergoing training. I put them in charge of public security in the city. The generals are all our people. There are three surrendered generals, all of them are generals. Among them, Lai Wenbo is pretty good. He
It turned out to be the garrison of Xuancheng County who surrendered to us on his own initiative. He sent several false intelligences to Liu Shining in succession. He expected Liu Shining to perish sooner than we did."
The Jin army divides surrendered generals into three categories. The first category is those who were captured in war. This type of surrendered generals are generally not used. Unless they are very capable, they will be sent back to their hometowns. The second category is those who surrendered voluntarily during the battle. This type belongs to
Quasi-prisoners of war will generally continue to serve, but will be downgraded and have to go to a martial arts hall for one year of training.
The third category is Lai Wenbo, who voluntarily surrendered before the war started. This type is basically downgraded to one level, and he also has to go to the martial arts hall for training. However, if he performs meritorious service, he can maintain his original official position. If he has special talents, he can even be promoted to another official position.
Receiving a promotion is like Zeng Jinghai, the commander-in-chief of the Guangzhou Navy, who was originally only a Zhonglang general, but was promoted to a Hubenlang general because of his ability in commanding the navy.
If Lai Wenbo can successfully lure Liu Shining to Youzhou, he will be considered to have made a contribution and can basically maintain his original official position.
"General An, do you have any questions?" Su Zhen asked.
An Zhong smiled and said: "There are basically no problems with the military. As for the civil affairs, why don't Han join the army and leave!"
Han Canjun is Han Kuan, the grandson of Han Huang and the son of Han Gao. He was originally a soldier of the militia army. Cao Shenjun followed Su Zhen to raid Xuancheng this time. He will serve as the magistrate of Xuancheng County and be in charge of civil affairs. The original magistrate of Xuancheng County is
Liu Shining's confidant was greedy for money and accepted bribes, and had a very bad reputation. He was dismissed from his post and investigated.
Su Zhen smiled and said: "He is the magistrate of Xuancheng County, so he will naturally stay in the county. He has good abilities. General An doesn't have to worry about civil affairs."
"I don't have anything else to ask. When will General Su set out?"
"I'm basically ready and will set off tonight!"
That night, Su Zhen led 10,000 cavalrymen to leave Xuancheng and march toward Jiangzhou in the southwest. Their target was not Jiangzhou, but Liu Shining's main force coming out of Jiangzhou.
.........
Liu Shining was lured out of Jiangzhou by Wang You's interlocking conspiracy, and led an army of 10,000 to rescue Xuancheng.
But Liu Shining is not stupid. He will not lead the army directly to Xuancheng. He will stop dozens or hundreds of miles away from Xuancheng and send people to Xuancheng to inquire about the situation first, and then decide his next step.
action.
Precisely because Liu Shining was cautious, Su Zhen's cavalry could not wait and wait in Xuancheng. He had to take the initiative and go to the west to look for fighters.
At this time, Liu Shining led 10,000 troops from Jiangzhou into Xuanzhou. There are many mountains in the west of Xuanzhou, such as Huangshan, Gaishan, Jiuhua Mountain, Wushi Mountain, Lingyang Mountain, Liguo Mountain, etc., large and small
There are dozens of mountains, each ranging from tens to hundreds of miles in radius. The mountains are majestic, but they do not form a continuous mountain range like the Taihang Mountains. There are plains and hills around the mountains, and there are villages and towns one after another.
A flat official road winds between the river and the mountains. On both sides of the official road are green mountains, green waters, and lush trees. This place belongs to Qiupu County, Xuanzhou, which is far away from Xuancheng County. An army of ten thousand people is lining up.
Travel quickly on the official road.
Liu Shining was riding on a divine white horse. Compared with the eagerness when he set off, he slowly calmed down now, and began to feel a little uneasy in his heart. He thought of attacking Changzhou, which was obviously a sure thing, but he did not expect that the other party would actually have it.
The ambush, in the final analysis, was because I was too eager.
This time when he rushed to rescue Xuanzhou, he seemed to have made the same mistake again. He was still a little too hasty. There were also many uncertainties in Xuanzhou! The other party's 3,000 cavalry and 20,000 troops, Liu Shining found himself facing the other party
The situation is unknown.
But Liu Shining was also comforting himself at the same time. Xuanzhou and Changzhou were not the same thing. Changzhou was the other party's territory, while Xuanzhou was his own territory. He still had 13,000 troops in Xuanzhou. The key was that Xuancheng County still controlled
In your own hands, if Xuancheng County is captured by the enemy, you will definitely encounter defeated troops retreating westward.
Two conflicting mentalities intertwined in Liu Shining's mind, causing him to worry about gains and losses. He was about to order the soldiers to turn around and return to Jiangzhou, but then he rejected his impulse to withdraw.
In this contradictory mentality, the army continued to march eastward. It arrived at Jingxian County in the morning. Going further east was Qinggeshui, a relatively large river. The terrain became more open. It was another hundred meters from Jingxian County.
Fifty miles away is Xuancheng County.
Compared with the cities in Xuancheng County, Jingxian County is really not on the stage. Of course, Jingxian County is a small county with only a few thousand people in the city. The city walls are dilapidated and in disrepair, and many places have collapsed.
However, the army came all the way from an uninhabited mountainous area. When they saw a lively county town, they felt as if they had returned to the human world, and their originally low morale suddenly cheered up.
Liu Shining no longer wanted to go any further and wanted to stay in Jingxian County to wait for news, so he ordered the army to camp in Jingxian County. At this time, the county magistrate was led over by soldiers. The county magistrate's surname was Jiang. He was over fifty years old.
He had a big red nose with lees.
"This is a humble job, please meet my lord!"
Liu Shining smelled the sour smell of wine emanating from him, and he seemed to be a good drinker. He disliked this kind of inactive county magistrate.
"See how dilapidated the city wall is?"
Liu Shining pointed at the city wall and city gate with his riding crop and said very dissatisfied: "And this city gate is half-hanging on the city. There are big holes in it that can be drilled. Why don't you think of a way to repair it?"
"I would like to inform you, my lord, that the population of this small county is too small, and it has to bear the military expenses of a thousand soldiers. There is no spare capacity to repair the city wall."
Liu Shining's face sank, "Other counties have heavy burdens, but their city walls are not as shabby as yours!"
"This...this, the situation is different in each place, we..."
Before he could continue, Liu Shining interrupted him impatiently, "Let's not talk about this anymore. Let me ask you, do you have any news from Xuancheng?"
"What kind of news are you referring to, lord?"
Since the county magistrate asked this, there must be nothing major happening in Xuancheng. Liu Shining felt a little relieved, waved his hand and said: "No matter what kind of news, as long as it is related to Xuancheng."
The county magistrate thought for a while and said: "This morning, a group of businessmen came from Xuancheng. It seemed that General Lai was only allowed to leave the city and was not allowed to enter the city. The control was very strict, as if there was going to be a war, but I didn't hear that.
There's a war over there."
Liu Shining was overjoyed and quickly asked: "Are you sure it's General Lai?"
"It must be true. In the morning, this group of businessmen came to the county government to report to the officials that thieves had stolen their goods!"
"Are these businessmen still there?" Liu Shining asked anxiously.
"A few are gone, but the merchant who lost the goods is still there."
"Bring him to me immediately!"
Not long after, the county magistrate brought a middle-aged man, wearing a futou, gray cloth shorts, a small nose and small eyes. At first glance, he looked like a timid and cautious, but yet shrewd, small businessman.
The businessman knelt down and kowtowed, "The common people pay homage to the general!"
General is the name given to Liu Shining by the people in Jiangzhou area. Liu Shining heard that he had a Jiangzhou accent and asked, "What is your name and where are you from?"
"My name is Li Gui, a native of Xunyang County, Jiangzhou."
Hearing that he was from Xunyang County, Liu Shining immediately felt a little fond of him and asked, "Are you coming from Xuanzhou?"
"Exactly! I'm in the Four Treasures of the Study business. I went to Xuancheng to buy a batch of paper. When I checked in last night, I found that one hundred and fifty kilograms were missing. I only bought three hundred kilograms of paper in total. This is less.
Half of it was done, so I reported to the official today."
Liu Shining was not interested in his nonsense, so he asked again: "How many days have you stayed in Xuancheng?"
"We stayed for five or six days! We originally wanted to buy some pen and ink, but General Lai ordered that all people who are not from Xuancheng must leave the city, so we had no choice but to leave."
"Tell me the details, what day did you go and what day did you leave?"
"I went there at the beginning of the month. I left three days ago and came here directly after I left."
"Did nothing happen in Xuancheng?" Liu Shining asked.
The businessman thought for a while and said: "It seems that five days ago, a cavalry came to attack the county town in the middle of the night, but General Lai seemed to have received the news in advance. All the troops were on the city, and no one was allowed to go out. There was no fight later. The cavalry
Just left."
"How do you know it's a cavalry?"
"The next day word spread throughout the county that there were thousands of cavalry, but they did not carry siege weapons."
"Then what? No more troops coming?" Liu Shining asked again.
The businessman shook his head, "Anyway, it wasn't there when we left, but the atmosphere in Xuancheng was very tense. General Lai went from house to house to mobilize young and strong men to help defend the city, and each man was given a set of armor and a spear."
"Do you know how many people have been recruited?"
"We don't know the exact number, but we estimate it is at least tens of thousands! When they lined up on the street, they couldn't even see the end."
Liu Shining's heart finally dropped. With more than 10,000 militia soldiers, Xuancheng would not be easily lost. He was immediately anxious and wished he could fly to Xuancheng. He immediately ordered: "Pass my order and set off for Xuancheng immediately."