Obviously, with our soldiers and horses, why let them take the lead in fighting Lishui City? Seeing that Xinchang Marquis Li Pu took Gao Shao and Zhang Ping to discuss the specific plan for attacking Lishui City, Feng Yi asked in confusion.

A large number of young and strong slaves and maids came to join the army, Gao Shao led two battalions of the Chishan Army to the past, with a full strength of more than 2,000 people.

What's more, the materials in Lishui City, especially the armor and weapons, will not be less than Shangjiabao, which are all in short supply of the Chishan army, and whoever leads will get the right to distribute the spoils, so there is really no need to be polite to Li Pu and them in this regard.

Besides, Xinchang Hou Li Pu has not given this side a look of face these days.

Han Qian stood in front of the fort wall with his hands in his hands, looking at the old and weak women and children who were moving south from the southern foot of Maoshan Mountain, and said quietly: "The problem is not whether it is difficult to defeat Lishui City, nor is it how many troops are sent out on which side, in fact, the Chishan army is fierce and inward, this battle is already extremely risky, and there is no way to fight a tough battle in front all the time - Li Xiu and Li Qi are the representatives of the young generation in the palace of Zhedong County, and they are eager to make contributions, and after they defeat Lishui City, they can share a lot of pressure for us only in the name of Li Yu, why not?" ”

In terms of the scale of soldiers and horses, the Chishan Army will become larger and larger like a snowball, but the problems and hidden dangers it will bring will also become more and more and bigger.

In the final analysis, there are too few veterans in the Chishan Army and systematically trained grassroots military attachés.

After the Jinling Incident, Xinchang Hou Li Pu gathered all the men of the right age who could fight in Taowu and Changchun Palace, and there were only 7,000 soldiers and horses.

Han Qian transferred 300 military attaches from Xuzhou, plus the elite generals who returned from the Dragon Bird Army, Han Qian was able to fight the veterans and military attaches in his hands, adding up to about 3,500 people.

However, in order to attack Shangjiabao and conquer the walled fort in the early stage, more than 26,700 casualties were suffered before and after, more than half of which were borne by veterans.

The elite veterans and military attachés of the Chishan Army who can fight add up to a little more than 2,000 people; In addition, there are more than 500 injured and sick old people.

This is also due to the fact that the Chuzhou army did not dare to bring the elite up to attack their flanks, otherwise, even if they could win in the end, they would win extremely dismal, desolate, and bruised all over their bodies.

At present, they have successfully captured Shangjiabao, which is another sigh of relief, encouraged by this momentum, the size of the Chishan Army may be able to swell to 20,000, 30,000 or even 40,000 or even 40,000 in a very short time, but it will take time for the elite veterans to grow.

When the time comes, the only few veterans and military attachés will be distributed, and the result will only be that the combat effectiveness of each unit of the Chishan Army will be seriously reduced, but it is also necessary to send military attaches and veterans, otherwise there will be no way to organize even the basic battalion of thousands of slaves and maids who have surrendered to the army, let alone other constraints.

In the past, the Chuzhou Army and the Anning Palace looked at each other, and they didn't want to free up their hands to clean up the Chishan Army, giving the other party a chance to take advantage of, but what about after the fall of Shangjiabao?

The Chishan Army had no way to stop at all, it had no time to retain the weak, let alone train new soldiers and train new military attachés.

With so many slaves and maids dragging their families to join them, if the Chishan Army expands by 40,000 or 50,000 soldiers and horses in a short period of time, the old and weak women and children who come over from the vassals will have to be more than 300,000, and then they will need to arrange for them to disperse and provide food.

The grain they had collected before could barely last a month's supply.

After laying down Shangjiabao and collecting nearly 20,000 stone grains and grains, it seems to be a lot, but after the slaves and maids of Shangjiabao were collected, the scale of the Chishan army's soldiers, horses, women and children also further swelled to 120,000 people.

If we concentrate in one place, eat up all the food stocks in this place, and then change to the next place, it will only completely destroy the production system of one place after another, and produce more displaced and hungry people.

And once they disperse and get food, the noodles that the Chishan Army needs to take care of will become scattered and miscellaneous, and more and more flaws will be exposed.

At this time, they concentrated their forces and were able to capture Shangjiabao.

Once dispersed, and the opposing family gate lords become more and more antagonistic and acute because of the contradictions with the Chishan Army, their internal will inevitably become more cohesive, and when the time comes, can they continue to win the battle without exposing a flaw?

And if a flaw is revealed, even if the Chuzhou Army and Anning Palace do not move, how many family gates who hate them to the bone will pounce and bite at that time?

Historically, the bottom-level uprisings in the last years of the dynasty have always been huge, and they have swept the Central Plains and devastated, but how fast and lightning they have been!

The destructive power of the uprising at the bottom is extremely great, but what is more difficult is to solve the problem of its own survival, and it is even more difficult to solve the problem of its own team building.

Those generals who rise from the bottom can serve as military attachés or even school generals with their martial arts, but their desires for this world are also very simple and direct, and their desires swell, once they reach the point where it is difficult to contain, they will drive the entire snowball to fall apart at an accelerated pace.

To be honest, Han Qian is not afraid of Li Pu's merit now, but afraid that he will not fight for merit.

Even Li Pu and the others recruited the elite soldiers and kicked the old and weak women and children over, Han Qian also endured to accept it, hoping that they could tap the potential of the county king's mansion, and help them block one wing, and when they shared all kinds of pressure for him, it also won him more buffer time.

Of course, he now expects that Yang Yuanyan, the king of letters, and the Chuzhou army can stand up and share more pressure for him and attract the hatred of the family......

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Zhao Zhen packed up the remnants of the army and abandoned the temporary camp in Baihuling, and Wang Wenqian also retreated into Liyang City with the army.

Although this battle was far from hurting the muscles and bones of the Chuzhou army, they were extremely bitter in their hearts, not to mention the loss of troops, and they also watched Shangjiabao, a key node of expansion from Maoshan to the south, be captured by Han Qian.

What made Wang Wenqian even more headache was that the situation in Jinling had become doubly complicated, and King Xin and the generals of the Chuzhou army would become more restless and impatient.

The casualties were also officially counted at this time, and they suffered more than 1,000 casualties in this battle, including more than 400 wounded, nearly 600 elite soldiers were either killed in battle, or captured by the Chishan army, and more than 600 precious war horses were lost.

The Chishan army had no feelings for the war horses of the Chuzhou army, and the disabled war horses were also slaughtered on the spot, along with those who were killed on the battlefield, the whole army was cut and cooked, and the leather sheath was made of leather horses to make up for the lack of ordnance.

Late at night, several fast horses galloped into Liyang City, and issued an order: "Your Highness has an order, Lord Wang and Chief Zhao will go to the camp to participate in the military meeting as soon as they receive the order!" ”

Wang Wenqian didn't care about his old and weak bones, and after Zhao Zhen arranged the defense, he took advantage of the faint morning light of dawn and galloped in the direction of Jingshan Nunnery surrounded by more than 100 elite horsemen.

Wang Wenqian's riding skills are good, but they are only good, and his body bones cannot be compared with the generals who boil their bodies every day.

Rushing one hundred and fifty miles a day, rushing to the Jingshan Nunnery camp before dusk, Wang Wenqian intuitively felt that his body frame was about to be scattered, and there was no place that did not hurt, and the inner side of his thighs was even more ground to flesh and blood.

Rao Geng, Su Xingzhou, Ruan Yan and others had already taken their seats, and the eyes of King Yang Yuanyan were gloomy and deep.

It has only been a month since Danyang City was attacked and destroyed, who would have thought that the situation on the southern front would be stirred up by Han Qian like this?

The Jingshan An'an battalion planned to send troops to the west of Qiuhu Mountain in the near future to cut off the connection between the defenders of Qiuhu Mountain and Jinling City, forcing the Nanya Forbidden Army and the Shouzhou Army to fight with them in the field, but now this plan is obviously not rushed.

Seeing this scene, Wang Wenqian ignored his leg injury, saluted King Xin, walked to the back of the case, listened to Ruan Yan and others discuss for a while, and guessed that before he and Zhao Zhen came back, King Xin and Ruan Yan, Rao Geng and others discussed the current situation on the southern front for a long time.

Wang Wenqian held the long case with his hand, let his body sit upright, and said to Yang Yuanpu, the king of the letter:

"The Red Mountain Army is fierce and inward, coerced by the rabble, swelling is fast, but perishing is also fast! In the previous dynasty, the great Kou coerced the homeless slaves and maids, and the soldiers rebelled in the Jianghuai and Central Plains, and the troops were so vast when they were in their prime, but how sudden their death was! Shangjiabao fell, the Chishan Army's troops pointed directly at the north of Xuanzhou, Xuanzhou's family gate valve must be extremely shocked, and when the whip of Anning Palace is out of reach, we should divide our troops to respond. In addition to the soldiers who can collect the gate valve for His Royal Highness's use, His Royal Highness divided his troops to help guard Langxi, blocking the passage to Huzhou from Fuyu Mountain and Jieling Mountain to the Chishan Army, forcing the Chishan Army to only turn around in a narrow space in the south and west of Jinling, and when the army is strong again, it will inevitably try to storm the south bank cities west of Jinling such as Dangtu and Quarrying, and then Anning Palace and Shouzhou will not allow him, and we will take advantage of the two tigers fighting......"

"Although it is close to Yueyang to the west, the terrain is narrow, why did Lord Wang conclude that they would attack Dangtu and quarry, instead of storming Langxi and opening the passage to the east into Zhejiang?"

Ruan Yan, the envoy of the middle gate, is also a descendant of Yang Yuanyan, who has been following the letter king Yang Yuanyan for many years, and is highly valued by the letter king Yang Yuanyan in military affairs, and his status is not under Wang Wenqian, he was forty years old, with a long beard under his chin and chest, and his bright eyes stared at Wang Wenqian, and asked,

"After the Chishan Army captured Shangjiabao, it absorbed the slaves and maids in the fort, and the soldiers and horses could almost expand to 15,000 people, and I believe that it will soon be able to expand to 20,000, 30,000 or even higher. In the past, the generals underestimated it, thinking that it would be difficult for the rabble to become a climate, but at this time, which general only said that he would use 10,000 soldiers and horses to seal the eastward passage of the Chishan Army? ”

Wang Wenqian wanted to say that although Zhao Zhen failed to contain the Chishan Army in attacking Shangjiabao on the southern front, it also greatly consumed a lot of precious veterans of the Chishan Army, making the Chishan Army more vulnerable, but thinking about the bamboo pole formation formed by the elite cavalry and the new soldiers of the Chishan Army on the flank, it was obviously not convincing enough.

Wang Wenqian pondered for a while and said, "Reduce the garrison here and strengthen the southern front—Your Highness should have greater patience......"

"Then the plan to use troops for Qiuhu Mountain and Jiangcheng must be completely abandoned?" Forward General Rao Geng asked.

"It's just that I will put it down for the time being, and first put the main force into the two cities of Dantu and Danyang." In the face of the opposition of Ruan Yan and others, even if he lost this battle, Wang Wenqian still insisted on his own views and explained the thoughts he had thought along the way to everyone.

The Chishan army pointed directly at Xuanzhou, and the family gate lords in Xuanzhou could not count on the Anning Palace at this time, and they would be able to win them over when they divided their troops, and then together with the family gate valves in the north of Xuanzhou and the south of Runzhou, they should be able to block the eastern line passage and block the Chishan army in the west of Jieling Mountain and Fuyu Mountain.

Not to mention the counties of Dangtu, Wuhu, and Yong'an, Chizhou and Jiangzhou along the river to the west, and even crossing the river to the north into Chaozhou, Chuzhou and other places, are the core areas controlled by Anning Palace and Shouzhou.

At this time, in addition to drawing troops from Jingshan Nunnery to the south, they can even go further, and withdraw all the soldiers and horses of the Jingshan Nunnery battalion to the front line of Dantu, Beigushan, and Danyang, in addition to strengthening their control over the counties on the southern line, they can also free up their hands in Anning Palace to deal with the Chishan army.

They have the opportunity to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, why not?

Of course, Han Qian will definitely not be easily forced to go west by them, after all, it is not easy to open up the gap between the mountains and rivers between Yueyang and Yueyang to the west, and he will definitely try every possible way to go east, enter the south shore of Taihu Lake and the banks of the Qianjiang River with abundant grains, but the offensive and defensive situation has changed, and the Chishan Army, which is fragile, most of the people have no armor, and the old soldiers may have less than 2,000 people left, still has the ability, or the courage to attack a strong fortress like Shangjiabao several times in a row?

What's more, if they pull out the main force from the southern foot of Baohua Mountain, and do not engage in a tense confrontation with Anning Palace, the mobilization of troops and horses will be much more calm than now.

"Han Qian may not be in Xuanzhou, and he can take a big breath if he has Xuanzhou. Lord Wang, don't forget that the connections and foundations of the Han family and the Feng family in Xuanzhou are not weak. Ruan Yan said.

Wang Wenqian said: "In addition to the two counties in the north of Xuanzhou, the grain is slightly abundant, and the counties of Ningguo are located in Fuyu Mountain and Yishan Mountain, with many mountains and few fields, and there is also a shortage of grain. Unless the Chishan Army does not continue to expand, if there are two or three hundred thousand women and children attached to the past and need to be supported by the Chishan Army, how much grain will the family lords in Xuanzhou have for them to exploit? Not to mention that Han Qian's conscription of slaves and maids into the army shook the foundation of the entire family gate, and the family gate valve in Xuanzhou did not do anything alone. ”

Seeing that Ruan Yan and Wang Wenqian had different opinions and were arguing, Yang Yuanyan asked Zhao Zhen with a gloomy face:

"Zhao Zhen, what do you think?"

"Lord Wang's concerns are very thorough, but as Lord Ruan said, Han Qian may not act according to Lord Wang's ideas everywhere." Zhao Zhen glanced at Wang Wenqian and said.

Compared with Wang Wenqian, who is better at planning the overall situation, Zhao Zhen, as the chief general of the army, prefers to seize the initiative in his hands.

Especially this time, if he could recruit 35,000 troops from the local area to bravely defend Danyang, Jintan, Liyang and other cities in advance, he would be able to transfer 3,000 elite infantry of the Chuzhou army from the defense of these three cities.

Then the outcome of this battle will be completely different, and he will not be ashamed to meet His Highness's cold eyes at this time.

Zhao Zhen will not choose to stand on the same side with him just because Wang Wenqian has been with him these days.

At this time, Wang Wenqian predicted the situation, and there was a premise that Han Qian would abide by the oath he made after arriving in Jinling, and would not abandon the old and weak women and children, but Zhao Zhen did not care about this, he agreed with Ruan Yan and others, and did not think that Han Qian would really be stubborn for a so-called oath.

Even if it is impossible for Han Qian to reconcile with the family gate lords in Xuanzhou, as long as he moves tens of thousands of old and weak women and children into the territory of Xuanzhou, regardless of how tragic the hundreds of thousands of old and weak women and children will fight for food with the local family gate lords in Xuanzhou, he himself will lead one or two thousand elite soldiers to defend the line of Maoshan and Donglu Mountain, and the grain is enough to support the last year, and the Chuzhou army can still spend a year with them on the eastern front?

Of course, there is another key reason why Zhao Zhen thinks so.

That is, Chuzhou is located on the battlefield buffer zone of the eastern front of Liang and Chu, similar to Shouzhou and Xiangzhou, and the local old family gate valve force has long been destroyed by decades of repeated wars.

Another point is that under Wang Wenqian's persuasion, after crossing the river, they did not completely take over the military and political affairs of Runzhou counties and the prefectures and counties to the east and south, let alone large-scale conscription and grain requisition, but they waited for so long, and the local forces in these states and counties were still riding on the wall and watching, calling Zhao Zhen, Rao Geng and other generals, how could they have the patience to continue to wait?

Wang Wenqian saw that not only Ruan Yan, the envoy of the middle gate, but also most of the generals in the army were no longer patient, and looked at Yang Yuanyan and persuaded bitterly: "I hope Your Highness will think twice before acting." ”

At this time, the guards guarding outside the big tent handed a letter that had just arrived in front of Yang Yuan's case.

Yang Yuanyan saw it, and did not mean to circulate it, but pinched the letter in his hand, held down the long case, and said ruthlessly: "Ruan Yan, the envoy of the Central Gate, is also the captain of the Beigushan Military Government, and the slaves and maids of Runzhou Dantu, Jingkou, and Danyang counties are incorporated as military soldiers, and those who disobey will be treated as disobedient and killed!" ”

The land annexation of Dantu, Jingkou, and Danyang counties is serious, and the population of the three counties is 300,000, and almost 100,000 people are slaves and maids.

However, after the Chuzhou army crossed the river, the area under its direct and strict control is these three counties, and at this time, of course, the slaves and maids of these three counties can be co-opted, and they are not afraid that the local forces in these three counties will dare to struggle and resist, but in the eyes of the family lords outside the three counties, how are they different from the Chishan army?

Of course, seriously speaking, King Xin's decision is still a little different from that of the Chishan Army, they just recruited Ding Zhuang among the slaves, and the family gate lords in the three counties can continue to leave those old and weak women and children to farm and other labor, and at the same time, they did not say that they wanted the family gate lords to hand over the land.

"What made His Highness make this decision?" Wang Wenqian asked.

"See for yourself." Yang Yuanyan handed the letter to Wang Wenqian and said indifferently.

Wang Wenqian glanced over, but it was the Tanma placed on the west flank of Maoshan Mountain in the afternoon that confirmed that the Chishan Army had more than 3,000 soldiers and horses surrounded by a batch of weapons and headed in the direction of Lishui City.

The Chishan army made it clear that it was going to take advantage of the victory to divide its troops to storm Lishui City.

This seems to be in response to the judgment of Ruan Yan, Zhao Zhen and others:

Han Qian did not intend to lead the old and weak women and children east to the south shore of Taihu Lake to get food, but to lead the young and strong soldiers to stay on the front line of Maoshan and watch them compete with the two tigers of Anning Palace, otherwise why would they attack Lishui City?

Wang Wenqian didn't know that Xinchang Hou Li Pu had the intention of competing for merit at this time, nor did he know that Xinchang Hou Li Pu's judgment of Han Qian was actually no different from Ruan Yan and Zhao Zhen......

Wang Wenqian was also speechless at this moment, after all, his previous judgment that the Chishan Army was strong and inward-looking seemed to be untenable?

"Can you wait and see for two more days?" Wang Wenqian said with difficulty.

"The time is fleeting, and I can't afford to wait here to look ahead?" Yang Yuanyan no longer listened to Wang Wenqian's words, and signaled Ruan Yan, the envoy of the Central Gate, to act according to the order, and quickly went to Beigushan to collect the Ding Zhuang slaves and maids in the three counties, but imported the battalions to make up for the lack of troops......

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Xu Bin, the general of Lishui, is a member of the military camp of Nanya, as a middle and senior general promoted after the Jinling Incident, the soldiers and horses under his command are also a battalion of the Nanya forbidden army, and after the Chuzhou army crosses the river, he will lead it to be responsible for garrisoning Lishui.

There were only 500 soldiers in the first battalion of the forbidden army, and the local gentry were not very cooperative, and seeing the Chuzhou army fighting so sharply in Jingshan'an, Xu Bin's heart was full of frustration for a while.

The Chishan army stationed in Maoshan caused the chickens and dogs in the surrounding townships to jump, and the family lords in the county fled into the county seat in panic.

Xu Bin was also able to gather the soldiers of the family clan, and the county sword archers who were mainly composed of the clan soldiers were no longer in violation, and there were more than 2,000 soldiers available in their hands at one time, especially the combat effectiveness of the clan soldiers was not bad, so he felt quite good, and secretly felt that even if the elite of the Chuzhou army came over, Lishui City might not be able to defend.

It's just that this feeling didn't last long, and it was shattered with the fall of Shangjiabao.

Seeing that Li Pu, the Marquis of Xinchang, and Zhang Ping, the envoy of the supervising army, led 3,000 horse infantry to slowly approach, and stationed the camp outside the east city of Lishui City, Xu Bin sent people out of the north city to Jinling to ask for help, in addition to retaining the elite mobility of 500 people in the barracks near the county government, on the other hand, he also transferred two sentinels from each of the other three cities to supplement the east city to strengthen the defense.

At night, he and the county commander, the county lord and other officials and gentry gathered all the heads of the families in the city, and asked them to send troops and food to defend the city together.

The night was dark, except for the torches lit above and below the city walls, the stars and moon were dull, and the hazy clouds shrouded the night sky, and the streets and alleys of the city were also dark.

Even if the painting boat in the Red Mansion in the evening does not put away the pallet and declare it closed, no heartless children of the family will come to have fun tonight.

In the dark and inky night, the painting boat left its previous mooring place and walked slowly in the direction of the lower reaches of the Mingshi River, and no one noticed anything unusual.

The painting boat was moored at the end of Dongliu Lane, the pallet stretched out, and was connected to the waterfront wharf of a courtyard house, and the bilge where the boatmen and maids lived suddenly opened, and dozens of figures rushed away into the quiet house.

On this sweltering summer night, everyone wore robes, and even if they were sweating, they were tied with belts, so as not to make too much noise from the armor and armor they were wearing, and alarm the people left and right.

Yao Xishui's eyes were as deep as a deep spring, hidden in the night, like a poisonous snake, staring at the North City Gatehouse shrouded in the lights of the north, where they were the target of their immediate attack from the inside.